OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Recollections of Early Governors -- Article 3 *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 October 30, 2002. ================================== Historical Collections of Ohio Series of Articles by S.L Kelly And Then They Went West Recollections of Early Governors reprinted by Darlene E. Kelley Article 3 ================================== Article 3 -- Before Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1803, it was part of the Northwest Territory. A Governor and three Judges appointed by Congress made all the rules. Not until the territory's population reached five thousand free male inhabitants of full age were settlers given the right to elect representatives. The territorial legislature consisted of a House of Representatives and a five member Legislative Council ( the predecessor of today's Senate.) In February 1799, the House of Representatives chose the first members of the Legislative Council. The first constitution, prepared in 1802, established three branches of governmemnt with a General Assembly consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate. Thirty representatives and 14 senators took their seats as the first legislature was called to order in Chillicothe on March 1, 1803. The leaders of each house were called speakers. In 1851, the people adopted a second constitution imposing limits on the legislature's authority. Executive officers and judges were now to be elected by popular vote. A new officer, the lieutenant governor, would preside over the Senate. The Senate majority leader became the president pro tempore. Social reformers were disappointed that the constitution failed to address many issues. Blacks were still denied the vote, and woman's suffering failed. Although voters had amended the 1851 constitution on many occasions, it was still the fundamental law of the land. ================================== Governor 3. SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. 1808 - 1810. The third governor of Ohio, Samuel Huntington, was born in Coventry, Connecticut, on October 4, 1765. His father was Joseph Huntington, a minister of libral views and a descendant of Simon Huntington, who emigrated from England in 1633. His maternal grandfather, Ebenezer Devotion, was also a minister, as were three of his paternal uncles. As a boy, he was adopted by his Uncle and namesake, Samuel Huntington, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Connecticut in 1786-96. He attended Dartmouth College until the end of his junior year ad then transferred to Yale, graduating in 1785. He was at the age of 20, and his Uncle, upon graduation sent him abroad for a tour of Europe. Upon his return Samuel studied law and was admitted to the bar in Connecticut in 1793. There he practiced law in that state until 1800. In the same year, he made a trip to the Ohio country on horseback, visiting the Western Reserve and the Ohio Valley as far south as Marietta. In the earlier years, Samuel Huntington married Hannah Huntington of New London, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Judge Andrew Huntington and his wife Lucy Coit. Hannah was born at Norwich, Connecticut, and it was there she became a bride. in 1791. Early in the summer of 1801, Samuel Huntington brought his family ( wife and four children ) to Youngstown and soon after settled in the village of Cleveland. Amos Spafford had built for them a double log house, the largest in the settlement. It stood on a bluff on the south side of now Superior Street, near west 6th, and commended a beautiful view of the Cuyahoga River Valley. Along with their arrival they brought with them was the children's Governess, Miss Margaret Cobb. In a letter to Moses Cleaveland in 1801, Samuel Huntington describes the trip west as follows; " I have moved my patriarchal caravan through the wilderness to this Canaan. I was nine days on the journey, with two Waggons, ten oxen, three horses, seven cows and eighteen persons in my retinue. We slept seven nights in the open air after leaving the settlements in New York State. Amos Spafford has built a log house for us and was very comfortable when we arrived." ( present site of the Erie Railroad depot. ) " We have about 200 Indians going up the Cuyahoga. They have a jealousy of my coming here, owing to a story that has been propagated amongst them, that I am raising soldiers to drive them out of the country. I have had a great number of workman here who they think are soldiers in disguise." It is related that one night in 1802, he was attacked by a pack of wolves. He fought them off with an umbrella, and his horse running at top speed, reached home safely. The Indians stiil continued to roam freely about the little settlement. A different danger also threatened the settlers; the prevalence of malaria arising from the swamps. This last peril probably induced Huntington to move to Newburgh at the falls of Mill Creek, where he bought a grist mill, which had been operated by W.W. Williams for two or three years. In 1807, he traded three hundred acres in Cleaveland for a tract on the grand River owned by John Walworth and moved to Painseville Township. There with two others in 1812, he founded te village of Fairport, where he erected the first warehouse in Lake County. Soon after coming to Ohio, Samuel Huntington was filling positions of responsibility. Governor St. Clair appointed him lieutenant colonel of the Trumbull County militia in charge of the troops of the Western Reserve. In 1802, he was elected one of the supervisors of roads and in the same year was appointed Justice of the Peace and was give the priority on the court of quarter sessions. he favored statehood and opposed the arbitrary rule of Governor St. Clair. he was elected as delegate to the Ohio Constitutional Convention in 1802, where he acted in harmony with the Chillicothe Junto. He was elected to the senate of the first general assembly and was chosen speaker, but in April 1803 the general assembly selected Huntington as judge of the supreme court. His commission is said to be the first issued under the authority of the state. In 1804, he succeeded Return J.Meigs, Jr., as chief justice of the court, making many important decisions. In the 1808 elections, the court question was the principal issue and Huntington had the support of the Federalists and the Quids or pro court Republicans, defeated Worthington and Kirker, who split the anti court Republican vote. Huntington's administration was a stormy one. There was much excitement over the impeachment trials- both judges were acquited by a single vote over Tiffin's sweeping resolution, the principle of which was enacted into a law terminating the tenure of judges holding seven year terms under the constitution ( including interim appointees ) in 1810. Another major concern was the threat of war with Great Britain, which would leave Ohio in a crucial position. There was much agitation also over the temporary location of the capital at Zanesville and the question of its permanent location. It was during this administration that Ohio's blue laws were passed, but there appears no evidence that Huntington, though a New Englander, had advocated them. Governor Huntington was not a candidate for reelection but ran against Thomas Worthington for the United States Senate. He was defeated, howver, and at the close of his term, he returned to his splendid estate near Painesville. In 1813. he was appointed army paymaster under General William Henry Harrison and with the General visited a fort at Cleveland named in Huntington's honor. He died on June 8, 1817, of injuries received while supervising repairs on the road from his estate to the Fairport Harbor. Samuel Huntington was a man of small stature but had abounding energy. Well educated, a natural leader, and loyal to his adopted State. He was interned at Evergreen Cemetary, along side his wife, at Painesville, Ohio. ================================= continued in article 4.