C. P. Huntington founds the City of Huntington

Rufus Cook, a civil engineer from Boston, MA, was hired by C. P. Huntington to survey and layout the city plan. Albert Laidley (His parents, John and Nancy S. Hite Laidley, started Marshall Academy and built a house, Lamartine, overlooking the Ohio near the foot of 26th St. and a landing.), acted as an agent for C. P. Huntington, bought 17 farms lying in the range of the Guyandotte River to First Street. These land purchases were transferred to the Central Land Co. (C. P. Huntington, President).

Delos Waters Emmons, another prominent citizen of Huntington, was the right of way agent for the C&O and brother-in-law of C. P. Huntington. Henry Clay Simms (from around Charleston, WV) , a friend of Frank Bliss Enslow (another prominent citizen, attorney, and businessman) and C. P. Huntington came to Huntington as an attorney representing the C&O Railroad. He helped found the Irving Club (a men's club) and was a member of Huntington's first Independent School Board in 1889.