He was the adopted son of ¤Samuel Huntington, president of the Continental congress, and was graduated at Yale in 1780 as valedictorian, the youngest member of his class. He gained his medical training under the direction of his brother, Dr. James Cogswell, at the Soldiers' hospital in New York city. He successfully removed a cataract from the eye and tied the carotid artery in 1803, the earliest date recorded in the United States for the accomplishment of either operation. He was married to Mary Austin Ledyard and settled in New Haven. Their daughter, Alice, was rendered deaf and dumb through the effect of a severe illness, and this affliction, and the father's efforts to instruct the child, led him to establish in New Haven in 1820 the first asylum for the care and education of the deaf and dumb in America. He also founded the retreat for the insane in Hartford. He presided over the Connecticut medical society for ten years. He died in Hartford, Conn., Dec. 10, 1830.

Professor of Latin and Greek at Columbian University.

He was CT superior court judge (1793-1798)

Among other enterprises, he built the Southern Pacific railroad, from San Francisco through Los Angeles, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, a track from ocean to ocean, and the merging of twenty-six corporations with 9,000 miles of track into the organization known as the Southern Pacific company.

He then pushed his connections westward from Virgina, through West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi, until he was able to ride his own private car over his own tracks from the gateway of the Old Dominion on the Atlantic to the Golden Gate on the Pacific coast, a feat accomplished by no other man in America.

He also founded the city of Newport News, VA, and invested more than $7,000,000 in a ship-yard there, which employed 4,000 men and turned out battleships. He there gave workmen every inducement to own their own homes.

Born October 14, 1816, in New York City, he graduated at Hamilton College, and married, at St. Ann’s Church, Brooklyn, June 16, 1842, Harriet Sophia Richards. His life was given to the cultivation of the fine arts, for which nature designed him, and in which his success was a triumph. He studied art in 1835, with Samuel F. B. Morse, and became an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1839, and an Academician in 1840. As a portrait painter he stood at the head of his profession, having a continental reputation. He painted portraits of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Van Buren, Albert Gallatin, Generals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, Admiral Dupont, Chancellor Ferris, of New York University, Sir Charles Eastlake, the Earl of Carlisle, James Lenox, William Cullen Bryant, John Sherman, and Bishop A. C. Coxe. The following criticism, found in the "Whig Review," for August 1846, exhibits his position among our artist at that time.

"Huntington, to whom we are inclined to give the highest place among our artists of the highest school, sent five pictures, exclusive of three portraits, any one of which would have asserted his pre-eminence in this department of his art. Of these, our favorite is the Sacred Lesson, which, although not so full of spirituality, and perhaps not so elevated in tone as his Italy, seems to us a more finished work. The subject, a beautiful girl listening to the story of the crucifixion from an aged man, gave opportunity for all the harmony of contrast, and the embodiment of that high physical and intellectual beauty, of which Huntington seems to have such an admirable conception. His female heads are remarkable for their graceful contour, their high foreheads, but broad, low and classical brows, and for their perfectly feminine expression, which, as well as their freedom from that exaggeration of points of beauty, such as large eyes and small mouths, into which modern painters are apt to fall, gives them a truthful air which some of hotbed taste mistake for materiality. In fact, his women do not look like sylphs, angels, nor goddesses, but like women, which is the grand reason that they are so beautiful. His heads of old men have equal excellence, and are full of character and vigorous drawing. He seems conscious of his abilities in this way, for three of his pictures for this year present the contrast of feminine youth with masculine age. Huntington’s pictures bear the stamp of high cultivation and of great genius. Not only are his conceptions beautiful, just, and of a high poetic order, and his designs clear, but his work is almost always well done; the tone of his pictures is such that the eye rests upon them with delight and contentment; the heart sympathizes with the sentiment expressed, and the judgment approves almost without a but.

His effects are always simple, direct, and forcible, for he never descends into the pettiness of his art. His coloring is singularly beautiful, and reminds us of that of Lueca Giordano, fa presto. Lucca as he was called, but among American artists it is peculiarly his own. Who has given us such unobtrusive reds and yellows, and such rich, quiet greens? Nobody has ever tried to do it; the very conception of such colors seems to have been left to him, for such was the character of his coloring before he had studied in Italy. They alone are enough to make a reputation, and yet they are but secondary to, though admirably in keeping with, his high poetic conception, his admirable drawing, and exquisite flesh tints. Indeed, so beautiful are these colors in themselves, and so harmonious are the broad masses in which they are introduced, that the eye, after wandering around upon the walls turns unwittingly upon his pictures to drink in their cool, refreshing tone."

The estimate in which Mr. Huntington was held by the members of his own profession, is evinced by his election to the presidency of the National Academy of Design, as their third president, the first two having been Prof. Morse, and A. B. Durand. He held this office from 1862 to 1869, and from 1877 to 1891. He died April 18, 1906. His wife died November 8, 1893.

Huntington Family Association, Huntington Genealogical Memoir, (Hartford, CT 1915)

He helped repulse the British at Danbury in April, 1776.

JEDIDIAH VINCENT, born in New York City, January 20, 1815, and married Mary Huntington. He was educated at Yale College, and at the New York University, graduating in 1835. He received his medical diploma at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1838. Finding literature more attractive than his profession, he devoted himself mainly to its pursuit. He labored, also, in the educational field, and accepted an invitation to the professorship of mental philosophy, in St. Paul's College, near Flushing, L. I. In 1841 he was ordained in the Prot. Episcopal church, and after a period assumed parochial duty in Middlebury, Vt. Declining health induced him to visit the South, and to reside for a while in Europe, where he spent four years, returning in 1849. While in Europe he became a Roman Catholic. In 1842 he published a volume of poems, among which were, "The Northern Dawn," a descriptive piece, a threnody, "To Emmeline," "The Trysting-place," and translations from the Greek Anthology. Several sonnets completed the volume. The novel, "Lady Alice," appeared in 1849, and was a decided success. Its high artistic merits elicited the applause of critics, and 20,000 copies were promptly sold. Soon followed another novel, "Alban" a poem, "America Discovered", "The Forest", "The Pretty Plate", "The Blonde and Brunette", and "Rosemary".

Dr. H., in 1853-4, edited the "Metropolitan Magazine," at Baltimore, and from 1855 to 1857, the "Leader" at St. Louis. He also lectured in several of our large cities, before associations. He returned to France in 1861, and died at Pau, of consumption, March 10, 1862. A beautiful tribute to his memory and personal worth appeared in the "Tablet," a single passage from which is due to his name, in this record:

"With all his rare mental gifts, Dr. Huntington had the meekness and humility of a child, and had, in a most uncommon degree, the art of endearing himself to all with whom he came in contact. In him we saw combined the finished gentleman and the accomplished scholar, the humble, sincere, practical Christian; as a husband, as a brother, as a friend, as a citizen, Dr. Huntington was all that man ought to be, whilst as an author he has left a distinguished name among American writers. His death leaves a void in the ranks of American literature that will be long and severely felt. Dr. Huntington's health failed rapidly after 'Rosemary' was finished; he traveled to the northwest with some benefit, and by the advice of his physician sailed for France in November 1861, to pass the winter in Pau. In that balmy climate he failed to find permanent relief, but gradually sank, soothed by the tenderest care of wife and friends, and on the 10th of March last went to his rest as calmly as a sleeping infant."

[Huntington Family Association, Huntington Genealogical Memoir, (Hartford, CT 1915)]

wiki: 

He was born in Coventry, Conn., Oct. 4, 1765; son of the Rev. Joseph and Hannah (Devotion) Huntington and grandson of Nathaniel and Mebetabel (Thurston) Huntington, and of the Rev. Ebenezer Devotion, of Windham, Conn. The Rev. Joseph Huntington, born May 5, 1735, was a brother of Samuel, the signer, was graduated at Yale, A.B,, 1762, A.M., 1765, was pastor at Coventry, 1763-94, received the degree of D.D. from Dartmouth, 1780, was a trustee of Dartmouth, 1780-88, and died, Dec. 25, 1794. Samuel was adopted and educated by his uncle Samuel and was graduated at Yale, A.B., 1785, A.M., 1788. He also received an honorary A.B. from Dartmouth in 1785. He was married, Dec. 20, 1791, to Hannah, daughter of Judge Andrew and Lucy (Coit) Huntington. He was admitted to the bar in 1793 and practised in Norwich, Conn., 1793-1801, in Cleveland, Ohio, 1801-05, and in Painesville, Ohio, 1805-17. He served as a delegate to the Ohio state constitutional convention of 1802; was judge of the court of common pleas, 1802-03; of the supreme court, 1803-09, and chief justice during the term; was a state senator in the first general assembly, 1803; the third governor of the state, 1809-10, and a representative and speaker in the 10th general assembly, 1811-12. In 1819 he was one of the original proprietors of Fairport, and in the war of 1812-13 was district paymaster with the rank of colonel. He died in Painesville, Ohio, June 8, 1817.