Martha J. Huntington (maiden name: Wicks) was born around 1824 in New York to Asa and Elmira Wicks. Her father was a farmer. She married James Chauncy Huntington, and they had at least eleven children: Walter, born around 1842; Henry, born around 1844; Nancy, born around 1846; Harriet, born around 1848; Triphena, born around 1850; Paulina, born around 1852; Lillie, born around 1857; Reuben, born around 1860; Ida, born around 1863; Grace, born around 1865; and Martha, born around 1870.
They lived in Liberty, New York, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1850, they owned $1,500 of real estate. A decade later, they owned $2,500 of real estate and $675 of personal property, and a decade later, their wealth had grown to $3,500 of real estate and $871 of personal property. Her husband died around 1874, reportedly “killed by the cars…while driving a yoke of oxen across the track.” By 1900, she was living in her daughter Martha’s household in Liberty. She died of “paralysis” on March 22, 1901.