37 Woodland Avenue
Huston House

Huston, Archibald Holmes (8/7/1866-1/30/1938)
Subject Columbus (Ohio)--Biography--Portraits.
Caricatures
Description A caricature of A. H. Huston, the President of the Buckeye Transfer and Storage Company.
Identifier 095/H972/1911/01
Notes Huston lived at 37 Woodland Avenue.

1909 Mr. A. H. Huston of Columbus, vice-president of the Ohio Good Roads federation and chairman of the general committee on local arrangements



ARCHIBALD H. HUSTON. 

Archibald H. Huston, president and general manager of the Buckeye 
Transfer & Storage Company, is a native of Zanesville. Ohio, and a son of 
Archibald M. Huston. He, too, was born in this state and became a prominent 
factor in business circles as a banker, railroad promoter and contractor. He 
built the Atlantic & Lake Erie, now the Toledo & Ohio Central Railroad, from 
Bucyrus to Athens and was one of the early coal operators of the state, being 
the first to develop mining interests in Sunday Creek Valley, Moxahala dis- 
trict and in Muskingum county. In 1882 he removed to Columbus, where 
his death occurred. The family was of Scotch origin, the ancestors coming 
by way of the North of Ireland to America prior to the Revolutionary war. 
In both the paternal and maternal lines ancestors of our subject were partici- 
pants in the struggle for independence. The early representatives of the Hus- 



584 CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS 

ton family were of the Presbyterian faith, but later they divided and the 
branch to which Archibald H. Huston belongs became Methodists. 

In the common schools of Zanesville Archibald H. Huston pursued his 
education through successive grades and in Columbus attended the high 
school, from which he was graduated in 1885, being honored with the presi- 
dency of his class. He then entered the traffic department of the Star Union 
line, since amalgamated with the Pennsylvania lines, and in that connection 
was located at Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1885 until 1891, and at Akron, 
Ohio, from the latter date until 1897. He was agent of the Union line and 
traffic department of the Pennsylvania lines, covering the competitive terri- 
tory in northern Ohio. In 1897 he removed to Columbus, where until the 
fall of 1903 he acted in the saSse capacity with the Pennsylvania lines in 
charge of the competitive territory of southern Ohio and a part of West Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky. He resigned, however, at the last-mentioned date in 
order to give his entire time to other enterprLses, in which he had become in- 
terested. He has been instrumental in organizing and financing a number of 
different business concerns, including a Transfer & Storage Company at Fort 
Wayne, Indiana; a combination of grocery companies at the same place; the 
Ashland & Wooster Railroad Company ; the Ohio Valley Furniture Company ; 
the Buckeye Transfer & Storage Company, which he organized in 1902; and 
several other minor corporations. His activities have thus been of an impor- 
tant character, his fertility of resource enabling him to extend his efforts into 
various fields, while his labors have been attended with gratifying results, 
showing his capability in organization and management. He is a firm be- 
liever in the future greatness of Columbus, giving proof of this belief in his 
investments in centrally located property. 

In this city, in 1887, Mr. Huston was married to Miss Julia Samuel, a 
daughter of Samuel Edmond Samuel, the first jobbing druggist of Columbus, 
now deceased. Mrs. Huston is deeply interested in charities and has done 
much important work in that connection. By her marriage she has become 
the mother of two children : Florence L. and Archibald C. 

As the years have passed Mr. Huston has become associated with various 
interests of a public character that have been important factors in the growth 
and progress of the city, and has contributed either directly or indirectely to 
individual enterprise. He is a member of the Columbus Board of Trade, of 
the executive committee of the Ohio Shippers Association, the executive com- 
mittee of the Columbus Traffic Bureau and is the first vice president of the 
Columbus Good Roads Federation. He is also chairman of the executive com- 
mittee of the Columbus Vehicle Owners Association. In thorough sympathy 
with the beneficent spirit and purposes of Masonry, he is connected with var- 
ious departments of the craft, including the Mount Vernon Commandery, 
K. T., while in the spring of 1908 he w^as president of the Scottish Rite class. 
In more specifically social lines he is connected with the Columbus Automo- 
bile Club, the Columbus Country Club and the Ohio Club. It was truly 
through his efforts that the Ohio Good Roads Federation was organized in 
January, 1909, his associate in this work being George W. Lattimer. To 
furthering the object of the organization he has given much time for the past 



CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF COLUMBUS 585 

two years. He believes thoroughly in good roads and civic improvements, and 
his influence and efforts have been very effective in these lines. He is now 
chairman of a joint committee from the Columbus Board of Trade and the 
Columbus Traffic Bureau to investigate the advisability of building a belt line 
around Columbus, and doubtless their efforts will produce the desired results 
in the near future. 

His political allegiance is given to the republican party, where national 
issues are involved, but at local elections he casts an independent ballot, nor 
has he ever sought or desired political preferment. He is a lover of outdoor 
sports, especially hunting and horseback riding, and has made many trips for 
big game. Such, in brief, is the history of Mr. Huston. The distinctive office 
of biography, however, is not to give voice to a man's modest estimate of him- 
self and his accomplishments, but* rather to leave the perpetual record of 
establishing his position by the consensus of public opinion. Throughout 
Columbus Mr. Huston is spoken of in terms of admiration and respect. His 
life has been so varied in its activity, so honorable in its purposes and so far- 
reaching and beneficial in its effects, that it has become an integral part of the 
history of the city and has also left an impress upon the annals of the state. 
In no sense a man in public life he has nevertheless exerted an immeasurable 
influence on the city of his residence through the promotion of business enter- 
prises, through his devotion to the public good, and in social circles by reason 
of a charming personality and unfeigned cordiality. 

William Alexander Taylor. Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio (Volume 1)