Huntington Historical Society marks 120 years with exhibit on group's 'Founding Mothers'

It was 1903, the year of "The Great Train Robbery" silent movie's debut and the Wright Brothers' flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On a July day in Huntington, the town marked its 250th birthday, with President Theodore Roosevelt as a guest speaker.

The festivities — and the assembled artifacts used in an exhibit for the celebration — sparked an idea by six bold women to create a historical society for the town.

That idea turned into reality.

This year, to mark the 120th founding of the Huntington Historical Society, a new exhibit, “Our Founding Mothers & the Origin of Our Collections, 1903-2023,” opens Friday.

“It will highlight the start of the historical society and focus on the six women who were instrumental to making it happen,” said collections manager Emily Werner.

It also will feature photographs and objects that were on display that July day in 1903.

The six women, referred to as the “Founding Mothers” by the society's members, are Lizbeth Sammis, Jessie Kendall Brush, Jennie Dusenberry Platt, Carrie Shaw Dusenberry Shakeshaft, Lucinda Beers Conklin and Ella Jayne Conklin Hurd.

They were members of the community's leading families, the names of which can be seen today on buildings and street signs.

The women were a part of The Colonial Society of Huntington and collected items for an exhibit for the town’s 250th celebration. Afterward, families donated the items to the society, which had been a women-only organization. In September of that year, the women met to establish an organization to “perpetuate an interest in things Historic; in fact, all Historic relics relating to the Town of Huntington since 1653.”

The Colonial Society of Huntington changed its name in 1911 to the Huntington Historical Society and started allowing men to join, society officials said.

“It’s not clear why they changed the name, but it operated as a historical society starting in 1903,” said Robert “Toby” Kissam, a board trustee and former society president.

Kissam said he believes the society is the first organized around a town in Suffolk County.

The society maintains four properties that are on the National Register of Historic Places: The Kissam House, The Conklin Farmhouse, the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building and the Huntington Trade School and Archive Center, the society’s current headquarters.

Stephanie Gotard, executive director of the society, said programming will celebrate women throughout the year and some will be tweaked to focus on popular endeavors of that time and that are female-focused.

As the society continues to highlight the past, it’s important to keep moving the society forward, she said.

“Looking at what we have in our collection, it’s limited,” Gotard said. “If we want to do a better job of representing all cultures and all people’s history, we have to form relations so we can include those groups, different community members, so that we can get their artifacts so we can do more-inclusive exhibits — so everyone’s history is being represented in the Town of Huntington.”