John P. Huntington (March 8, 1832 – January 10, 1893) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Associated with

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

, he was prominent in the business affairs of

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

's oil industry. Among other philanthropic activities, funds which he left in a bequest were combined with those of

Hinman Hurlbut Hinman B. Hurlbut (July 20, 1819 – March 22, 1884) was an American industrialist. A native of New York, Hurlbut relocated to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1837 and started a career privately practicing law in Massillon, Ohio after being admitted to the ...

and

Horace Kelley Horace A. Kelley (July 18, 1819 – December 4, 1890) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Kelley was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised on Kelleys Island after the death of his father in 1823. Inheriting a fortune of real estate as ...

to establish the

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Located in the Wade Park District of University Circle, the museum is internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian art, Asian and Art of anc ...

in 1913.

Biography

Huntington was born in

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston, Lancashire, City of Preston local government district. Preston ...

, England on March 8, 1832. His father, Hugh Huntington, was a professor of mathematics who founded a school in Preston. John, with his wife Jane Beck whom he married in 1852, immigrated to

, Ohio, in 1854 and worked as a contractor in

slate roof Roofing slates are roofing tiles made out of slate. The rock is split into thin sheets which are cut to the requires size before shipment. This contrasts to slabs which are milled to produce larger structural components. They are the primary produ ...

ing. He was employed at Clark, Payne & Co., an

oil refining An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial processes, industrial process Factory, plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refining, refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, Bitumen, asphalt base, ...

firm, in 1863, until its

takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast to the acquisi ...

in 1870. Other business endeavors included gaining partial ownership of a fleet of lake ships in 1886 and becoming vice-president of the Cleveland Stone Company. He also filed many patents for improvements to furnaces, oil refinery, and machinery for producing

oil barrel A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons, the volumes of some barrel unit ...

s. An active participant in the municipal affairs of Cleveland, Huntington served as a member of the

Cleveland City Council Cleveland City Council is the legislature, legislative branch of Local government in the United States, government for the Cleveland, City of Cleveland, Ohio. Its chambers are located at Cleveland City Hall at 601 Lakeside Avenue, across the str ...

for 13 years (beginning in 1862). In his tenure as a city councilman, he supported the creation of a paid

fire department A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...

and a city

sewer system Sewerage (or sewage system) is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff (stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations, storm overflows, and screen ...

, the deepening of the

Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River (see ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Australia in Queensland and pa ...

, and the construction of the Superior Viaduct (which closed in 1920, following the opening of the

Detroit–Superior Bridge The Detroit–Superior Bridge or Detroit–Superior High Level Bridge (officially known as the Veterans Memorial Bridge) is a through arch bridge over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. The bridge links Detroit Avenue on Cleveland's west ...

). Huntington was also a hobby

philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

. After his tour of Europe and marriage to Mariette L. Goodwin (following his first wife's death in 1882), he turned his interests towards collecting art. He formed the John Huntington Benevolent Trust on his fifty-seventh birthday in 1889. The fund was mostly based on 500 shares of his Standard Oil stock, and it provided charity to more than 40 cultural and educational institutions. In his

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

written in 1889, Huntington established the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust with the goal of producing a "gallery and museum" and a "free evening polytechnic school". The trustee of his estate, Henry Clay Ranney, was also the trustee for the estates of

and

; Ranney channeled the bequests from all three estates toward the establishment of the

. Huntington was also a member of several

fraternal order A fraternal order is a voluntary membership group organised as an order, with an initiation ritual and traits alluding to religious, chivalric or pseudo-chivalric orders, guilds, or secret societies. Fraternal orders typically have secular p ...

s; he received the 32nd Degree from the

Scottish Rite The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a List of Masonic rites, rite within the broader context of Freemasonry. It is the most widely practiced List of Masonic rites, Rite in the world. In some parts of the world, and in the ...

, and was affiliated with the

Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political, non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Odd Fellows, Order ...

and the

Knights of Pythias The Knights of Pythias is a Fraternal and service organizations, fraternal organization and secret society founded in Washington, D.C., on . The Knights of Pythias was the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an Act of Co ...

. With Jane Beck, Huntington raised five children to adulthood, including his son W.R. Huntington who later became a prominent industrialist of the Lorain County area. John Huntington, along with his family, were members of the Episcopal Church. He also owned a

hobby farm A hobby farm (also called a lifestyle block, acreage living, or rural residential) is a smallholding or small farm that is maintained without expectation of being a primary source of income. Some are held simply to bring homeowners closer to n ...

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

on which he built many structures including a house, a

steam pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes Slurry, slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Mechanical pumps serve in a wide range of application ...

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

system, and a

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...

. After his death in 1893, the Cleveland Metropolitan Park System purchased the lakefront property and named it the Huntington Reservation in his honor. He is buried at

Lake View Cemetery Lake View Cemetery is a Private property, privately owned, Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Rural cemetery, garden cemetery located in the cities of Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Cleveland Heights, and East Cleveland, Ohio, East Cleveland ...

in Cleveland.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huntington, John 1832 births 1893 deaths American industrialists Burials at Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland Cleveland City Council members Businesspeople from Cleveland English emigrants to the United States 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American businesspeople