Happy? Farm Wife: Maria Louisa Huntington Huntington (1815-1893)

It's onto the eighth generation and the wayward fifth child of Charles and Maria Perit: Benjamin Franklin Huntington (1813-1891) "B.F." and his apparently "well-behaved" wife: Maria Louisa Huntington Huntington (1815-1893).* Yes, she was a distant cousin.

Brook House Farm as Maria Louisa Huntington experienced it at her death in 1893. Neat, tidy, surrounded by trees and fencing. Notice the many ell additions. Sketched in late autumn from the hill across the road by her grandson Huntington Phelps Meech on the day of her funeral.

Maria's house still stands! Could not find this house for years until Matt Novasad, the Franklin, CT town historian, helped me. Surviving outbuildings connected to the house helped keep the weather elements out. Front "porch" and remnants of a stone wall also survive. "Big house, back house, small house, barn..." an old New England saying I guess.

I have already mentioned them, and their Franklin, CT farm, a little bit in my post on Old Sturbridge Village from last November 23rd "Farm Life" see https://www.maggiemeahl.com/post/new-england-farm-life-a-field-trip-to-old-sturbridge-village-and-photo-dump

Now I'd like to focus on Maria Louisa--her origins, personality, and temperment.

Recently I came across her lengthy obituary describing her personality, etc. That was another "a ha!" moment in my research.** Turns out Maria was a very jovial extrovert. It is possible that B.F., despite his adventures, was more of an introvert. Just speculating! His obituary was short. They both died in the early 1890s.

Maria had notable grandfathers.

The first was the well-known Norwich Episcopal minister John Doolittle Tyler (1742-1823). Clergymen of this era continued to enjoy an exalted status in a New England community. It is no surprise, therefore, that Maria and her children were devout Episcopalians. She would have probably felt a high social status because of her grandfather and her Huntington roots.

The Reverend John Doolittle Tyler, Maria Louisa's esteemed Episcopal minister grandfather. Source: The Leffingwell Museum, Norwich, CT

Her other grandfather was Norwich furniture-maker, Felix Huntington (1749-1823). His career was stymied by the Revolution when no one could afford custom furniture. He went bankrupt and had to sell his business and household goods in 1794. His distant kin, Andrew Huntington was the broker. (see former posts on Andrew).

Chippendale-style desk attributed to Felix Huntington, Maria's grandfather. Made for Ebenezer Huntington between 1775-1790 and now owned by the Art Institute Chicago.

Felix's middle son, James Huntington, was Maria's father. He had to make his own way in the merchant world and died young. Meanwhile, his wife Zerviah Tyler (John Tyler's daughter) took on boarders to make a living for her young fatherless family.

Farm Work

In writing a history like this there is almost no paper trail or images for the women. Most got married and became helpmates, mothers, and homemakers with little time for their own interests. Maria, in fact, was in charge of the dairying on the farm--pounds of Huntington butter was sold for profit. Later, B.F. and Maria went into egg production. Both industries were emerging as money makers because as the nineteenth century progressed, less and less people owned their own cows and chickens. Thus, home production of these staples was waning--fast.

Romanticized view of poultry production. Maria and B.F. invested in a poultry operation in the 1870s (census records). Egg and dairy production were woman's work on an American farm, however, the men would have helped too. All involved intensive physical labor. (Image is from 1919).

Maria and B.F. married relatively young. They immediately ventured to Ohio as a newly married couple. Staying for roughly three years, they could not make a living.

Fortunately their livlihoods were saved by C.P. and Maria Perit Huntington (his parents) who bought a Franklin farmstead for them in 1841. They had five children together including a late baby "Minnie" in 1861.

Maria, a devout Episcopalian, was one of the founders of the Grace Episcopal Church in nearby Yantic. She raised her children as Episcopalians--B.F. was apparently o.k. with that. Descibed in her obituary as gifted with ill and despondant people, welcoming, nurturing, and a good mother--she was another well-behaved wife in this particular Norwich Huntington family line.

Hints of Trouble in the Family

But, as a widow with only a few years to live, Maria became an invalid after a bad fall. Provocatively, she had enough bad feelings brewing to specifically disown her daughter-in-law, Henrietta Maria Ladd Huntington, in her last will and testament. Another "a ha" moment! The End.

*I continue to use "well-behaved"--a term created by the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, to describe women of the eras I am talking about. They are largely hidden from the history sources because Ulrich posits that typically the only women who disobeyed the patricarchal American society were included in the records

**An "A ha!" moment is when I snag a really good piece of primary source information to really enhance the picture--usually concerning Huntington women.