Jonathan HUNTINGTON

                   SOURCE: CORNEAU 0044
LETTER FROM COUSIN LILIAN REA (1935)
In Glendale, we still have our dear Cousin Kate Pearson, now
lady of eighty-five years of age, whose native genius and energy, always
remarkable among her friends and acquaintances, will persist as long as
a spark of life remains.  Her husband, Cousin Isaac, was a son of one of
our grandmother's sisters - Aunt Julia - the one for whom my mother
was named, and who is the older sister in the painting of the Huntington
Sisters, so well known to us all.  One of their five sons is
real estate agent, lives in Glendale, with an office at 715 South Brand
Boulevard.
                  

                   BIRTH:  Born in Roxbury (now Boston) Massachusetts.
SOURCE: CORNEAU 0008 (Kith and Kin Mailing List Feb 1936) lists the
following Huntington relatives:  Mrs. Kate Terry Pearson, Mr. James W.
Pearson, Mr. J.B. Henkle, Mrs. William L. Patton, and Mrs.
SOURCE:  CORNEAU 0013 lists Nicholas H. Ridgely's two wives, their
children, and their grandchildren.  It is undated, but was compiled  at
some point after 1923 and prior to 1935.
FROM HER OBITUARY:  Mother of nine children, one of whom died in
infancy.  No worthy poor person was ever turned away from her door.
OBITUARY:  Death notice, Illinois State Journal, Springfield,
January 1883:  The sad news of the death of Mrs. Jane M.
of W.H. Ridgely, Esq. [newspaper misprint, should be N.H.
city, was received with the deepest of sorrow by a wide circle of
friends and relatives of the deceased, yesterday morning.  Her death
occurred at about 8:30 o'clock.  She had been critically ill for several
weeks and during the past few days her death was hourly expected.  She
was 68 years of age and was the mother of nine children, eight of whom
are now living.  She was born in Boston, Mass., her maiden name being
Jane M. Huntington.  She came West to St. Louis with her father, who was
for many years a resident of that city.  She was the possessor
number of intimate friends in the Episcopal church, having
member during her life.
CORNEAU 0057 (Road of Remembrance) describes her: Jane Huntington,
and her family had gone to St. Louis from Boston in the late
a young ladies' school.  She was young, gay, and pretty when Grandfather
met her.  Grandfather was a widower with five children when he met my
future grandmother.  Some of his children were almost as old as
Grandmother.  One of his daughters he placed in the Huntington school,
and through her he must have met young Jane, and determined to marry
her.  Soon after their marriage he was sent to Springfield,
cashier of a state bank, newly chartered, and here his young
own five children were established.  Springfield was a small, muddy
town, lying stark on the prairie.  A change indeed it must have been for
young Jane after Boston, where she had grown up.  Crude as her new
surroundings were, Grandmother had one solace.  She had brought her
piano with her.  Family tradition affirms it was the first to enter
Springfield, but other pioneer families contest this claim.  At least it
was enough of a novelty to attract great attention.  When the farmers in
their muddy boots came to the bank to do business they would ask
wistfully, Won't your woman play on that thing for us again?
Grandmother being of a gay and lively temperament lent herself good
naturedly to their entertainment, and seated herself obligingly at the
instrument.  She played and sang very well indeed, every one
had a good musical education in Boston.  Children came thick and fast,
until she had added eight to Grandfather's original five.  No
family live over the bank but in a large, pleasant brick house in four
acres of grounds.  Grandmother had everything that heart could desire:
silk dresses, a velvet cloak, pearl and onyx jewelry, a rockaway, a
beautiful garden in which to stroll, laid out by a landscape
had come down from Chicago to make the plan.  The house was always
full of visitors; there seemed no end of them.  The Ridgelies came up
from the South, the Huntingtons came from the East.  Every bed was
always full; but the garden was large, service was cheap, and no one
minded in the least.
After her death, our Grandmother seemed to hover above the pulpit of the
Episcopal Church, which had been commissioned in her memory.  She had
been gone so long we could only dimly recall how she used to look
standing before her rose-wood bureau arranging her hair.  Two
enchanting toilette bottles had always stood on its marble top, one for
bay-rum, the other for eau de Cologne.  No lady of course, had used
perfume.
SOURCE:  GEDCOM posted by Robert Thomas Reed, Sr., on America Online's
Genealogy Forum 20 July 1998.	2  TYPE Keyword
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                   He was twice elected mayor of Springfield, Illinois in 1861-1862.
SOURCE:  Illinois State Journal biography (published 1956) of Jane M.
Huntington (Mrs. Nicholas Ridgely).