Huntoon, Roswell

The following data is extracted from Merrimack and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire Biographies.

Roswell Huntoon, an enterprising farmer residing in Langdon, was born in the town of Unity, this county, October 14, 1820, son of Lemuel and Sybil (Palmer) Huntoon. Phillip Huntoon, born in Wiltshire, England, in 1664, was the immigrant ancestor of this family. The next in line was John. Then came Charles, who was born October 12, 1725, at Kingston, N.H., and died in Unity, May 27, 1819. He was a very prominent man in Unity, and he served in the General Court of the State. He bore arms in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. His son, Charles Huntoon, Jr., was born in Unity, December 15, 1755, and died January 2, 1838. Charles married Maria Smith, of Kingston, N.H.; and their union was blessed by the birth of six children-Robert, Jacob, Pollie, Maria, Lemuel, and Erastus.

Lemuel Huntoon was born in Unity, November 29, 1793. About the year 1835 he came to Langdon, and lived here until his death, which occurred November 15, 1878, when nearly eighty-five years of age. He was a blacksmith by trade, and his years of active labor were spent at the forge. He was one of the first in this section to espouse the cause of temperance and join the temperance club. Sybil, his wife, was a daughter of Benjamin Palmer. She was born September 20, 1794, and died May 1, 1874, in her eightieth year. They had seven children, all born in Unity; namely, Sybil Palmer, Lemuel, Jr., Roswell, Joel, Candace A., Andrew J., and Jane. Sybil, born February 15, 1817, first married Josiah Prouty, by whom she had one child. She is now the widow of Rufus Guild, and lives in Alstead. Lemuel, Jr., born July 23, 1818, died April 24, 1891, in Lawrence, Mass., where he was engaged in the jewelry business. He married Helen M. Cummings, and had two children. Joel, born October 14, 1823, who is a surveyor and civil engineer in Topeka, Kan., married Ellen Richardson, of Alstead, N.H., and had seven children. Candace A., born July 12, 1826, was the wife of Samuel K. Elwell, of Langdon, and had two children. Andrew J. and Jane, twins, were born February 29, 1832. She died December 17, 1848, in her seventeenth year. Andrew is a physician in Topeka, Kan., where he also conducts a large livery business. He married Lizzie P. Foster, of Walpole, N.H., and had four children.

Roswell Huntoon supplemented a commonschool education by a few terms at Dr. Miner's Military Academy of Unity, teaching school during the winters. On completing his studies he learned the blacksmith trade. Subsequently he took up farming, which he has since followed. For eight years he lived in Charlestown, N.H.; but for over forty years Langdon has been his home.

Mr. Huntoon married Electa J. Elwell, who was born January 20, 1823, daughter of Samuel Elwell, of Langdon. They have had three children-Horace R., Marcella B., and Harley J. Horace R., born in Unity, September 14, 1843, who was a farmer and tanner, died November 1, 1865. Marcella B., born in Langdon, December 17, 1847, has been an invalid for the past twenty years. Harley J., born in Charlestown, July 7, 1856, is in the gunsmith business at Bellows Falls, Vt., and is a prominent musician there, playing in the band, and acting as prompter of an orchestra. He married Addie Parkinson, of Langdon, and has three children: Perley H., born in Bellows Falls, July 17, 1879; Edith E., born December 12, 1885; and Florence J., born May 6, 1889. In politics Mr. Huntoon is a Republican. He represented his town in the New Hampshire legislature in 1875 and 1876, and was a member of the Committee on Fisheries and Game. He is an attendant of the Universalist church; and, like his father, he has been an active temperance worker.

Source: Merrimack and Sullivan Counties, New Hampshire Biographies

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