1902

To most of us as freshmen, Jimmy Huntington was one of the "townees" in the class, whose father was Rector of the Episcopal Church and lived in the big house on the West side of Main Street nearly opposite to Deacon Downing's Drug Store. Much later, Dr. James Lincoln Huntington was a prominent Boston gynecologist and obstetrician, whose achievements cast luster on College and Class. Few know, however, that since retirement due to ill health Jimmy has become famous in antiquarian circles as president of the Porter-Pnelps-Huntington Foundation and Curator of "Forty Acres," a magnificent mansion in Hadley, Mass.

When it was learned that Dr. Huntington was to address the Bay State Historical League this summer, he was persuaded to let us have an abstract of his talk. Rather than confine it to the limited audience of a Class Newsletter, it seemed desirable to publish it where it would be accessible to a larger number.

Here then is a version, abbreviated at his request, of the outline of the address, "The Story of an early New England Town, Family and Mansion," delivered by Dr. Huntington to a meeting of scholars on June 20, 1964:

The town of Hadley was founded by 48 pioneers, who came from the environs of Hartford, Connecticut. Most of them were from the South of England, having first come over in the late 1620's or early 1630's and settled in Dorchester, Cambridge, Roxbury, and Watertown. They built a stockade around Hadley which was so effective that in its long history it was never penetrated by hostile Indians. The wealthiest family was that of the Porters, who gradually bought up several thousand acres in the northeast section of the town. In a later generation, my great-great-grandfather, a military man, a selectman of the town and also rich, built the house, now know as "Forty Acres" in 1752, though originally it stood on a tract ten times as large. He was killed in the war with the French in 1755. His daughter married a lawyer and successful cattle farmer who increased the acreage to over 1000 and enlarged the house. His daughter inherited the house and then married a poor parson. They had eleven children and the property was gradually sold off to educate these offspring. My grandfather was the youngest of them, a Harvard professor and a very popular Lyceum lecturer, so that he had enough income to buy up the shares of the property inherited by his brothers and sisters. He and my father died on the same day in 1904. We six Huntington children inherited the house and some 50 acres of land which I in turn was able to buy up by 1929. I gradually took up residence here during the 1930's, severing all Boston ties in 1943. I realized the priceless value to posterity of the house and its contents, but at the same time the impossibility of maintaining it by myself. So putting everything I had into the preservation of the house and gathering interested persons was able to turn the entire property over to the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation in 1956. Being an Historic House Foundation it was tax exempt, and we have been carrying on as such ever since. We are trying to get the house heated since it has not been occupied in the winter for 100 years and it should be available for the use of the large student body within a radius of ten miles. It has been acclaimed by experts as ideal source material for the study of colonial history.

So for our historically minded James. It is difficult to tell whether he takes greater pride in the number of babies he has helped into the world, the number of students he has stimulated to further historical research, or the countless others whom the Foundation will continue to serve long after we are gone.

Secretary, 29 Messer St., Laconia, N. H.

Treasurer, 7 Burt St., Bellows Falls, Vt.