#3 Samuel H. Huntington

Samuel H. Huntington

Born: October 4, 1765

Died: June 8, 1817

Political Party: Democratic -Republican

Term of Office: December 12, 1808 - December 8, 1810

Buried: Evergreen Cemetery Painesville, Ohio

No. 39 of 58

    Samuel H. Huntington was born in Connecticut in 1765 to a minister father. He was orphaned at a young age and was adopted by his Uncle, also named Samuel Huntington. The elder Samuel Huntington was a Signer of the Declaration of Independence and once served as President of the Continental Congress. The elder Huntington would also serve as 18th Governor of Connecticut. Which made googling "Governor Samuel Huntington" all the more confusing.

    The younger Huntington attended college at Yale and Dartmouth. After college he began to study law and would go on to practice law in Connecticut for 7 years before moving to the Northwest Territories in 1800. He moved to the then smaller community of Cleveland. He sold his land in Cleveland to purchase some land to the northeast in Painesville Township and co - founded the community of Fairport. It was here that he was able to invest in a number of business ventures. 

   It didn't take long for Huntington to get involved in Territorial politics. He served as Lt. Col. in the Trumbull County militia. He also supervised roads and served as justice of the peace. As Ohio approached statehood, he stood in opposition to Territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair, who opposed statehood. In 1802, he served as a member of Ohio's first Constitutional Convention. He found allies in Edward Tiffin and Thomas Worthington who also championed the statehood movement. 

   Once Ohio became a state in 1803, Huntington became one of the first judges on Ohio's Supreme Court. The following year he became Chief Justice of the states Supreme Court. His most famous case as Chief Justice occurred in 1807's Rutherford v M"Fadden. In the ruling the court stated that they have the right to deem any state law unconstitutional. This put him at odds with members of his own party who felt that the court was taking away power from the legislature. 

   In the election of 1808, Chief Justice Huntington ran for Governor against sitting Governor Thomas Kirker and Senator Thomas Worthington. All 3 men were Democratic Republicans. But since Worthington and Kirker were more closely aligned, it split the vote in Huntington's favor and he became the 3rd Governor of Ohio. 

   During his term as Governor, tensions continued between the state legislature and the state courts when the legislature attempted to impeach 2 judges on the state Supreme court. Tensions were also raising between the United States and Great Britain that would eventually lead to the war of 1812. All the while the state Capital was moved to Zanesville, as debate continued surrounding the issue of finding a permanent state Capital city.

   Huntington chose not to run for reelection in 1810, instead he challenged Thomas Worthington for his seat in the U.S. Senate. After he failed at his attempt for a Senate seat he returned home once his term as Governor ended. During the War of 1812 General William Henry Harrison appointed Huntington army paymaster. 

   Huntington was killed in an accident in 1817 while supervising the construction of a road near his home. This made him the first Governor of Ohio to pass away. A little bit ironic since about an hour before I visited Governor Huntington's gravesite, I visited the gravesite of Governor George Voinovich, who is the most recent Governor to pass away, less then a year ago. Huntington's gravesite was the final of 6 new Governor gravesite visits that I made one day in late March 2017 in the Cleveland area.

   

Governor Huntington, my kids and I