Miss CORNELIA HUNTINGTON, daughter of Abel Huntington and Frances Lee his wife, was born in East-Hampton, June 24th, 1803, and died there April 15th, 1890. Descended from that famous Connecticut family of Huntingtons who shone in the sphere of statesmanship, finance, jurisprudence, and all the professions of scholarship and learning, she early gave tokens of a brilliant intellect. In her youth the atmosphere of East-Hampton sparkled with learning and genius. Clinton Academy then flourished as an educational institution inferior to none in the land. Lyman Beecher filled the pulpit; Senators, Congressmen, Assemblymen and Judges were neighbors and friends. Other stars shone in the hemisphere of her childhood and youth. Her father was endowed with great mental power. He was in the State Senate, in Congress, and a life-long skillful medical practitioner. In this social constellation no light flashed more conspicuous in surprising wit, more penetrating with the intuitions of genius, more profound in the depths of sentiment, more varied in creations of the ideal, than that of the school girl, Cornelia Huntington; out-reaching, out-shining, out-witting all competitors. She mastered the elements of education with a celerity and ease that seemed, even in the classic halls of Clinton Academy where she was instructed, a marvel. Her modesty forbid the collection and publication of her poems until after her body was laid in the burial ground which her own lines had consecrated and hallowed.

In 1891, her nephew, Abel Huntington, M. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., collected and published her poems, including the lines on the title page of this book, and the odes composed for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the settlement of the town of East-Hampton.

In 1857 was published her romance entitled "Sea Spray." The house wherein she lived and died was the residence of Capt. Thos. Wickham, a member of the Colonial Congress and a commander of a Privateer out of Stonington, Ct., in the Revolution. Probably the assumed name "Martha Wickham" of the writer was thereby suggested. Mrs. Mary D. Rockwell, who obtained the copywright of the book, was a friend of Miss Cornelia Huntington, and the publication thereof resulted from her friendship and abounding activity. The scene and all the characters are located in East-Hampton, except as otherwise indicated:

• Lena Hesselton, p. 11, is Cornelia Huntington.
• Alice Hesselton, p. 11, is Abby, her sister.
• Col. Hesselton, p. 14, is Dr. Abel Huntington, their father.
• Milly, p. 11, is Mehetable Hedges.
• Drury, p. 13, is Montauk squaw servant of Dr. Huntington.
• Capt. Hull, p. 17, is Capt. Ezekiel Howes.
• Capt. Melton, p. 18, is Capt. Jeremiah Mulford.
• Capt. Hardy, p. 18, is Capt. George Hand.
• Mr. Alden, p. 19, is Rev. Samuel R. Ely.
• Lester Bennett, pp. 25, 279 and 454, is Lester Bennett.
• Shumway, p. 28, is Hiram Sherrill.
• Allen Hesselton, p. 29, is Abel Huntington, now M. D. in Brooklyn, N. Y.
• Sam Grey, p. 38 is Samuel G. Mulford.
• Miss Osgood, p. 39, is Mrs. Charles Osborne.
• Mrs. Melton, p, 40, is wife of Capt. Jeremiah Mulford.
• Gosport, p. 67, is Sag-Harbor.
• Lummux, p. 72, is Ezekiel Miller.
• Mrs. Godrich, p. 89, is Miss Ruth Hand, an aunt of Capt. George Hand.
• Thos. and Geo. Fuller, p. 149, is Thos. and Geo. Filer.
• Chas. and Eddy Osgood, p. 153, are sons of Chas. Osborn.
• Col. Preston, p. 240, is Col. W. D. Parsons, of Fire Place.
• Sam Lister, p. 257, is Sam. Lester.
• Talkhouse, p. 295, is Indian servant of Col. W. D. Parsons.
• Caroline, p. 300, is Caroline Parsons. daughter of Ambrose Parsons.

Dr. Huntington was a widower, and it is singular that no mention seems to be made of his wife previous to the solitary notice given on page 403, and none thereafter. So hard it is to make fiction deny facts. By the references to the Montauk contest and law suit I know the manuscript was not written until 1851, and by the election (Presidential) not finished before 1852. See pages 162, 248, 455.

Martin VanBuren and Miss Warner, author of the "Wide Wide World," visited East-Hampton about 1851 or '52--page 332. All the poetry in "Sea Spray" I think is original, and is largely or wholly included in the poems of Miss Cornelia Huntington, published in 1891, after her death, by her nephew, Abel Huntington, M. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., the Allen of "Sea Spray."