Samuel H. Huntington

Samuel H. Huntington ( born October 4, 1765 in Coventry, Connecticut, † June 8, 1817 in Painesville, Ohio) was an American lawyer and politician and from 1808 to 1810, the third Governor of the State of Ohio.

Early years and political rise

Samuel Huntington was the nephew and adopted son of the governor of Connecticut and signer of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, Samuel Huntington. He attended Dartmouth College and Yale University to 1785. After a subsequent study of law and qualifying as a lawyer, he began first in Connecticut and later in Ohio to practice in this profession. Since 1801 he has been resident in the then small Cleveland.

Huntington's first public employment was 1802, when he was entrusted with the supervision of the local roads in what was then the Northwest Territory. In the same year he became a justice of the peace and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of Ohio. In 1803 he was a member of the first Senate of Ohio. Between 1803 and 1808 he served as judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, where he was in 1804 even Presiding Judge ( Chief Justice ) of this court. In 1808 he was elected to two competitors out of their own Democratic-Republican Party as the new governor. He sat down by even against the incumbent Thomas Kirker, who finished only third behind U.S. Senator Thomas Worthington.

Governor of Ohio

Huntington took up his new post on 12 December 1808. In his two-year tenure, the country's capital was temporarily moved to Zanesville, during the discussion about a permanent location was going on. Faced with a threat of war with England, but then until 1812 broke out, there was concern in Ohio for the safety of the state. A dispute over the appointment of the Judges in Ohio was also a central part of those years. After the expiration of his term Huntington aimed at re-election. Therefore, he retired in December 1810 from his office.

After his governorship to Huntington applied unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. Senate. Between 1811 and 1812 he was a delegate in the House of Representatives from Ohio. He made his last public office during the war with England in 1813 as a district paymaster ( District Army Paymaster ) of the U.S. Army. Huntington died in 1817 in Painesville. With his wife, Hannah, he had two children.