Dr Thomas Huntington

• BIRTH 13 Jan 1744 Norwichtown, New London County, Connecticut, USA
• DEATH 22 Feb 1835 (aged 91) Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA
• BURIAL Mountain View Cemetery, North Canaan, Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA MEMORIAL ID 186414724

Biography

"THOMAS, born Jan. 13, 1744–5. He graduated at Yale, 1768, and entered the medical profession, practicing first in Ashford, and afterwards in Canaan, Conn. He married Mary Ward of Attleborough, Mass., who was born, May 8, 1753, and died, March 31, 1828. He died in Canaan, Feb. 22, 1835. He was a man of a most genial disposition, making himself one of the most companionable of men. He was especially interested in the young, and for the age in which he lived, devoted himself, with no ordinary success, to their improvement. He was an early friend of common schools, and earnestly insisted upon the most efficient discipline and thorough instruction in them.

He took great pains to secure good teachers and made himself their friend and helper. He left a volume of essays, which evince the interest in their increased intelligence and efficiency; and which show him to have been a man of an earnestly inquisitive mind. The preface to that volume, which was copyrighted Dec. 12, 1829, is a witness to his interest in the young, both as regards their intellectual and their moral culture.

"'Having in years past attended to the duty of visitor of schools, I was pleased with the propriety and importance of a paragraph in the statutes of Connecticut, which directs to the appointment of the visitors of schools. The paragraph alluded to was in substance as follows: the visitors shall instruct the youth in letters, in religion, in morals and manners. I was convinced of the utility and importance of inculcating these things in early life; and the sciences of Natural Philosophy, Geography, and Astronomy, include many things which are very delightful, useful and ornamental, and which may be easily attained by all youths of common capacities.

I have made some essays on these and other topics of literature, and have endeavored to exhibit some correct ideas on some very important theological subjects; and have made some observations upon the entire superiority of Christianity over all pretended schemes of religion, either ancient or modern, by fair comparison; and have just touched on some moral subjects. If I had views these subjects as being in any measure unimportant, I should have saved myself from much anxiety in attending to them. I hope that the infirmities of age may, in some measure, apologize for any inelegance of diction which may have escaped for want of sufficient revisal.'

Writings Genealogical Memoir of the Huntington Family in This Country, he topics treated of in the essays, are: Letters; Geography; Attraction of Cohesion; Air; Light and Colors; Astronomy; Theology; God; Man; Saving Faith; Means of Grace; Decrees of God; Industry and Intemperance. [3]

Will
dated July 23, 1831, he names his grandson Erastus, son of Thomas Huntington Jr of Hartford; his daughter Mary H. Rose of Geneva; his daughter Matilda Pease of Charlotte, Vermont; his daughter Clarissa; son Owen.

Genealogy

Parents John E Huntington 1709–1794
Civil Tracy Huntington 1712–1749

Spouse
Mary Ward Huntington 1753–1828 (m. 1773)

Siblings
John Huntington 1736–1766
Solomon Huntington 1738–1798
Andrew Huntington 1740–1830
Ezra Huntington 1742–1820
William Huntington 1746–1814
Caleb Huntington 1749–1842

Children
Mary Huntington Rose 1776–1863
Matilda Huntington Pease 1780–1873
Miles Huntington 1789–1790

References

[1] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186414724/thomas-huntington

Sources

[2] The Connecticut Courant newspaper (Hartford, Connecticut), Monday, March 9, 1835, p. 3, col. 3. DEATHS, At Canaan, on Sunday 22d ult. Dr. Thomas Huntington, aged 90 years.

[3] "Genealogical Memoir of the Huntington Family in This Country," published by the author, Rev. E. B. Huntington, Stamford, Connecticut, 1863, p. 102.