07/02/2026
A Founding Father — With a Familiar Name
* First of a two-part series
We celebrate our country’s founding this July 4th by highlighting the history of a man some consider our country’s “first president,” who, by the way, happens to be the namesake of our city and county: Samuel Huntington.
Obviously a little background on Samuel is in order. He was born in 1732 in Windham, Conn., which today is called Scotland, Conn. He was the fourth of 10 children. Besides helping his father on the farm, Samuel apprenticed as a cooper, a craftsman who fashioned tubs, barrels, and other containers from wood, when he was 16 years old.
Sam had a limited education in the common schools and mainly educated himself by reading books from the libraries of the local minister and lawyers. That was apparently successful, as he was admitted to the bar in 1754 and moved to Norwich, Conn., to begin practicing law.
Huntington married his minister’s daughter — appropriately named Martha Devotion — in 1761, but they had no children. However, when his brother died, they raised his three children. Their nephew, Samual Huntington Jr., would eventually become the third governor of Ohio.
Huntington’s political career began in 1764 when the people of Norwich sent him to be one of their representatives in the lower house of the Connecticut Assembly. In 1775, Samuel was elected to the upper house and served there for nine years. In addition, he was appointed king’s attorney for Connecticut in 1768 and in 1773 was appointed to the Court of Errors and served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Errors — great name! — from 1784 until 1787.
He was an outspoken critic of the Coercive Acts imposed by the British Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party. The Acts closed the Boston harbor, altered the Massachusetts Charter, and allowed British troops to be quartered in private homes. The ACTS, sometimes called the “Intolerable Acts,” escalated tensions and led to the forming of the Continental Congress and the Revolutionary War (1775-1783).
In 1775, the Connecticut Assembly elected him to serve as one of their delegates to the Second Continental Congress. The Congress was known to meet in local taverns. As most of you probably know, Samual Huntington was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
The Articles of Confederation were enacted in 1777, but it took two years for the lone holdout, Maryland, to ratify the Articles, creating the “The Perpetual Union of the United States of America.” At that moment, the Continental Congress ceased to exist, and the United States of America “in Congress Assembled” assumed all federal power under the new U. S. Constitution.
The words, “perpetual union,” would later be President Lincoln’s central legal argument to justify holding the union together and against those who espoused the view that the Constitution allowed individual states to separate from the United States.
The Articles of Confederation were the first U. S. Constitution. Samuel Huntington had been serving as President of the Continental Congress and was elected to continue to serve as the first president of the United States of America “in Congress Assembled.”
This happy event was celebrated in Philadelphia with cannon fire. The local paper said, “At two o’clock his Excellency the President received on this occasion the congratulations of the Hon. The Minister Plenipotentiary of France, and of the Legislative and Executive Bodies of this State, of the Civil and Military Officers, sundry strangers of distinction in town, and of many of the principal inhabitants.
“The evening was closed by an elegant exhibition of fireworks. The Ariel frigate, commanded by the gallant John Paul Jones, fired a ‘feu de Joye’ and was beautifully decorated with a variety of streamers in the day, and ornamented with a brilliant appearance of lights in the night.” Such was the first inauguration of our first President, Samuel Huntington.
A colleague of Huntington’s in Congress indicated he was not a man of eloquent speech or brilliant comment, “... but his steady hard work and unfailing calm manner earned him the respect of fellow delegates. (and) on the whole, better to lead than any other man in Congress.” And lead he had to do, because the initial stages of the Revolutionary War were not going well for the Americans.
Of course, it started with the Boston Massacre and bloodshed at Lexington and Concord. There were early American defeats at Bunker Hill and the Quebec campaign, where General Montgomery was killed and many captured or wounded. There were a series of defeats at New York, Long Island, Kip’s Bay, and White Plains. The Americans also lost Fort Washington and had to evacuate Fort Lee as well as Philadelphia. In 1780, the British captured a large patriot force at Charleston in one of its worst defeats of the war.
It was during this time that President Samual Huntington was urging the states to provide troops, money, and supplies to support the army led by General Washington. He also worked tirelessly to strengthen an alliance with France. The French had lost their American territories to Britain in the French and Indian War, and were eager to inflict a loss on London. Their influx of money, troops, and naval support at Saratoga was invaluable in winning the war.
At Saratoga, the British General Burgoyne’s forces reached the northern outskirts of the small village in September of 1780, but General Horatio Gates, supported by General Benedict Arnold, was waiting for him with 8,500 troops and defenses on the bluffs that controlled the road and Hudson River. Arnold urged Gates to attack rather than wait and his bold plan forced the British to withdraw. Arnold was riding in front of his troops that captured the British redoubt and was seriously wounded in the leg.
With the British humiliation at Saratoga, Gates received widespread public acclaim for the victory. He even contrived to replace Washington as Commander-in-Chief. But Arnold, for his heroic action and successful, bold plan, received no accolades, which is speculated to be part of the reason for his later treasonous act of turning West Point over to the British. He also married a British loyalist and escaped to Britain before he would have been shot or hanged.
France’s financial and military support contributed to Washington’s victory at Yorktown in 1781, which effectively ended America’s War for Independence. Samuel Huntington returned to Hartford, eventually becoming Governor of Connecticut in 1786, and died in office at age 64. He is credited with brokering the Treaty of Hartford, which settled conflicting western claims between New York and Massachusetts, and with the construction of a new capital building in Hartford. We should also remember that an argument can be made that the namesake of our city and county was actually the first President of the United States!
— Researched and compiled by Dr. John Regan
Volunteers are always welcome to help us preserve the past for the present and future at the Huntington County History and Education Center, 315 Court Street, in Huntington. Visit the Center from 10 a.m.-to 4 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and Saturdays by appointment. More information on the Center’s collection, tours, room rental, and how to become a member of the Huntington County Historical Society is available from Executive Director Barbara Rupley at (260) 356-7264 or
Visitors to the Huntington County History and Education Center can explore the county's rich history, which spans from prehistory and the Miami Indian and French Voyageur period through the Canal era and pioneer settlement to the present day.
