Huntington, Silas

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Brian Aitken, “HUNTINGTON, SILAS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/huntington_silas_13E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Methodist minister; b. 19 Feb. 1829 in Kemptville, Upper Canada, eighth and youngest child of Silas Huntington, a physician, and Mary Adams; m. first 21 June 1854 Elizabeth Stewart (d. 1891) in St Andrews (Saint-André-Est), Lower Canada, and they had five sons; m. secondly 27 Oct. 1891, in McKim Township, Ont., Harriet Emmeline Agar (d. 1895); m. thirdly, before the end of 1895, Annie Isabella Anderson of Sault Ste Marie, Ont.; d. 3 Aug. 1905 in North Bay, Ont.
    • Silas Huntington’s parents were both of loyalist descent. Converted to Christianity as an adolescent at a Methodist camp-meeting, Silas was commissioned as a lay preacher in 1850 and four years later, without any formal theological training, he was ordained. As was the custom in the Methodist Church, he did not stay long with any one congregation. Between 1854 and 1873 he held 14 appointments, on the Ontario and Quebec sides of the Ottawa valley and in the Bay of Quinte region. 
    •  In the summer of 1882 Huntington appeared as the minister of a new missionary church at Mattawa, on the upper Ottawa. From here he began his major life’s-work. At 53 he embarked on a vigorous campaign to spread Methodism throughout northern Ontario. He was well equipped for the task, being robust, an excellent woodsman and canoeist, and fluent in French and two Ojibwa dialects. Huntington followed the transcontinental line of the newly built Canadian Pacific Railway westward, preaching in hundreds of mining and logging camps, as well as in Indian settlements. He established churches in North Bay, Nipissing Junction, Sturgeon Falls, and Sudbury. 
    • By 1890 Huntington had become a folk hero in northern Ontario, and many tales about him have survived. Some involve his strength: one story tells of how he could attach a 56-pound weight to his little finger and then write his name on the ceiling of a tavern. Other tales point to his energy and humour. On one occasion a boxcar in which he was holding a service was parked on a siding with a steep grade when some young men decided to play a joke on him. They released the brakes on the car and it rolled down the grade before stopping about a mile from the town-site. Huntington never stopped preaching and after the service walked back to town without comment.
  • Grandson of Proven United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=19
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/217595520/silas-huntington