Huntington

/hun"ting teuhn/, n.

1. Collis Potter, 1821-1900, U.S. railroad developer.

2. Samuel, 1731-96, U.S. statesman: governor of Connecticut 1786-96.

3. a city in W West Virginia, on the Ohio River. 63,684.

4. a city in NE Indiana. 16,202.

5. a male given name: from an Old English family name, meaning "hunting estate."

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(as used in expressions)

Huntington Collis Potter

Huntington Samuel Phillips

Huntington Beach

Huntington chorea

Sessions Roger Huntington

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▪ Indiana, United States

      city, seat (1834) of Huntington county, central Indiana, U.S. It is located on the Little Wabash River, near its juncture with the Wabash, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Fort Wayne. The original site (Forks of the Wabash) was a Miami village (home of the Miami chief Jean Baptiste Richardville and his successor, Francis La Fontaine), where many treaties with Native Americans were signed; it was known as Wepecheange (“Place of Flints”). The settlement that developed there was renamed in 1831 to honour Samuel Huntington, a member of the First Continental Congress. The city is now an agricultural trade centre with limestone quarrying in the vicinity. Its light manufactures include metal products, electronics, motor vehicle parts, and air-conditioning equipment. Huntington University (Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA) was established in 1897. The Huntington County Historical Museum and a botanical garden and arboretum are in the city, as is the Dan Quayle Center (1993); Quayle, a former U.S. vice president, grew up in Huntington. Chief Richardville's two-story frame house (1834) has been restored to its original appearance and is headquarters for Forks of the Wabash Historic Park, just west of the city. Nearby are Huntington and Salamonie lakes, dammed for flood control and recreation. Inc. town, 1848; city, 1873. Pop. (2000) 17,450; (2005 est.) 17,011.

▪ New York, United States

      town (township), Suffolk county, southeastern New York, U.S. It lies on the northern shore of Long Island. The site, first settled in 1653, was named for the soldier-statesman Oliver Cromwell's birthplace in England. Nathan Hale (Hale, Nathan), the patriot-spy, probably landed (1776) at Huntington Bay when he went behind the British lines to obtain information for General George Washington (Washington, George); a monument marks the spot where he is believed to have been captured. The writer Walt Whitman (Whitman, Walt) edited (1838–39) the Long Islander, a weekly newspaper published in Huntington; his farmhouse-birthplace at West Hills is preserved. A museum of biotechnology, a whaling museum, and a state fish hatchery are operated at Cold Spring Harbor. Mainly rural-residential with some high-technology industries, the town has more than 50 miles (80 km) of shorefront and includes the incorporated villages of Asharoken (incorporated 1925), Huntington Bay (1924), Lloyd Harbor (1926), and Northport (1894) as well as a number of unincorporated communities. Area 94 square miles (243 square km). Pop. (1990) 191,474; (2000) 195,289.

▪ West Virginia, United States

      city, seat of Cabell county, western West Virginia, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Ohio and Guyandotte rivers, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Charleston. Collis P. Huntington, a railroad magnate, proposed building the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway's western terminal there in 1869. He purchased land then called Holderby's Landing, and the city was incorporated in 1871 and renamed Huntington. After the railroad came through in 1873, the town began to prosper. In 1888 the county seat was moved from Barboursville to Huntington. The city lies in a semicircle on broad lowlands and has experienced floods throughout its history. It now is protected by an 11-mile- (18-km-) floodwall.

      Huntington is now the centre of a tristate industrial region formed at the junction of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia that includes the cities of Ashland, Kentucky, and Ironton, Ohio. During much of the 20th century it was a significant river and rail point of transfer, but that role has diminished. Railroad equipment, steel, coal, fabricated metal, mining equipment, rebuilt machinery, rubber products, chemicals, and clothing are some of the city's diversified products. Huntington challenges Charleston for the position of the state's largest population centre.

      Huntington's cultural institutions include Marshall University, founded as an academy in 1837, and the Huntington Museum of Art (1952). The East End Bridge, opened in 1985, has an unusual asymmetrical cable-stayed girder design and is one of the earliest such bridges in the country. Pop. (1990) city, 54,844; Huntington-Ashland MSA, 312,529; (2000) city, 51,475; Huntington-Ashland MSA, 315,538.

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