Eliza, the youngest daughter of Judge Marvin Wait of New London, CT, was married to Jedediah Huntington in June 1819. Eliza was described as “a lady with a warm heart and an open hand, and the poor and the afflicted were ever drawn toward her by her deep and tender sympathy for them.”

Jedediah Huntington was a wealthy and successful mercantile businessman in the Norwich community known for his “unbending integrity” and “large and frequent donations to religious and benevolent objects.”

The Eliza Huntington Home, the residence of Eliza and Jedediah for nearly forty years, was established in 1872 by the last will and testament of Jedediah Huntington in memory of his wife and according to Eliza's expressed wishes during her last illness in 1871.