Matthew HUNTINGTON
Biography

Matthew, born March 20, 1720-21, married, in 1742, Elizabeth Heath, of Preston, daughter of Richard Adams, of Massachusetts, and in 1745 removed to Mansfield, Conn. He was engaged in the French War of 1756-60; for which he enlisted a company of about sixty soldiers from Mansfield and vicinity, and started up with them for the seat of the war on Lake George. In attempting to take up the Hudson, a number of barges, the task proved more than a match for the strength of his company. One after another of his men gave out, and to supply the deficiency, as far as possible, he exerted himself all the more earnestly, aiding with his own muscular arms the tugging at the boats, until he succeeded in taking his entire charge over the last rapids in his way. But he had overtasked his mortal powers, and he fell suddenly, a victim to exertions which were deemed even in that day of prodigies, almost superhuman. He died at Greenbush. His widow subsequently married Capt. Peleg Heath. An old sword which he used, about four feet long, with an immense guard above the hilt nearly ten inches in diameter, was for several years in the family, but was subsequently worked up into butcher knives.

A genealogical memoir of the Huntington family in this country: embracing all the known descendants of Simon and Margaret Huntington, who have retained the family name (1863)
Author: Huntington, E. B. (Elijah Baldwin), 1816-1877
Subject: Huntington, Simon, 1583-1633; Huntington family
Publisher: Stamford, Conn., The author




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