Arabella Huntington - Biography

Biography

Arabella Huntington was the second wife of Collis P. Huntington. After his death, she married his nephew Henry E. Huntington, who was also a railway magnate and the founder of the famous Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, in San Marino, California. She had a son, Archer Milton Huntington.

Compared to her famous family, information about Arabella is scarce. She was apparently born in 1850 or 1851, probably in Richmond, Virginia (see Wark, p. 312). Her first husband was a Mr. Worsham, of New York, who died shortly after they were married, leaving her with a young son, named Archer. (some other sources have suggested that they were not actually married, but that she was his mistress). (It has also been suggested that Archer's father was actually Collis Huntington, who legally adopted the boy when he was a teenager.). In 1877 she was able to purchase some property in New York, which was later sold to John D. Rockefeller. She married Collis Huntington in 1884, in San Francisco, California, and was left a widow a second time when he died in 1900. Thirteen years later she married Henry Huntington. They were together until her death in 1924, and both are buried on the grounds of the Huntington Library. There is also a memorial to Arabella in the west wing of the Huntington Library building, which was dedicated in 1927, the year of Henry's death.