DeWitt Clinton Huntington

Rv DeWitt Clinton Huntington USA 1830-1912. Born at Townsend, VT, one of nine siblings, he attended Syracuse University, NY, and was ordained a Methodist Episcopal minister in 1853. He married Frances Harriett Davis in 1853, and they had three children: Charles, Thomas, and Horace. After her death in 1866, he married Mary Elizabeth Moore in 1868, and they had a daughter, Mary Frances. He pastored in Rochester, NY, (1861-71 & 1876-79), Syracuse, NY, (1873-76), Olean, NY, (1885-89), Bradford, PA, (1882-85 & 1889-91), and Lincoln, NE, (1891-96), where he became a Methodist District Superintendent of relief work. At his pastorate he also personally designed and oversaw construction of a brick sanctuary seating over 1100 people. A depression in 1893 caused him to forego salary for a number of months while pastoring. As things improved, he designed an addition to the church that was finally built two decades later. He was prevailed upon to serve as Chancellor of Nebraska Wesleyan University (1898-1908), at first without pay, and asked more than once to stay after desiring to retire. In 1908 he became Chancellor emeritus and assumed the role of professor of English Bible & Ethics. He also wrote several books, one titled, “Is the Lord among us?”. Another: “Half century messages to pastors and people”. Another: “A documentary history of religion in America since 1877”. He also served on the boards of the local telephone company and Windom Bank. He contracted pleura-pneumonia and died in Lincoln, NE. A Lincoln, NE, street is named for him, as is an elementary school. He was opposed to football, thinking it had no place in a proper Christian institution, but football was re-instituted at the college after his death.

John Perry