Huntley Russell (1 September 1858 - 9 December 1928) was born in New Briton, Connecticut. He came to Grand Rapids in 1884 where he became involved in business and politics. He was elected to the Michigan State Senate as a Republican in 1905 and again in 1907 and was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Congress in 1912. He was elected to the State Land Commission and was a member of the Michigan Great Lakes Tidewater Commission that studied the feasibility of constructing the St. Lawrence Seaway. His business ventures included a dairy farm and Riverside Gardens Real Estate Company.

Clara Russell, wife of Huntley, (5 April 1866 - 18 June 1935) was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She was the daughter of Cornelia Guild Davis Comstock (daughter of pioneer Daniel Guild) and Charles Carter Comstock, a prominent local businessman and politician. Clara attended St. Margaret's School for Girls in Waterbury, Connecticut where Huntley's father, the Reverend Francis Russell, was rector. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Chairman of the Kent County Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense during World War I, Chairman of the Republican Women's Executive Committee, and Vice-President of the Michigan Equal Suffrage Association.

Clara and Huntley Russell were married in 1884 and had two sons, Charles and Francis. Charles attended Howe Military Academy in Lima, Indiana and the University of Michigan. In 1907 he married Frances Pangburn. They had one son, Sigourney Comstock Russell. Francis T. Russell married Lucille Hopson. Their children were Janet Huntley and William Hopson Russell.

Lydia Huntley Sigourney, the grandmother of Huntley Russell, was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1791. She was a popular poet of her era and authored books and contributed articles to numerous literary periodicals. She was an advocate of higher education for women and established schools for girls at Norwich and Hartford. She died in 1865.

Charles C. Comstock (1818-1900) was the father of Clara Russell. He was also a prominent Grand Rapids citizen & businessman, having been the mayor of Grand Rapids in 1863-1864, served in Congress, 1885-1887, and ran for governor in 1870. He had a reputation as both outspoken and tough. He was born in Sullivan, New Hampshire, and already had success in business when he immigrated to Grand Rapids in 1853. He was initially in the lumbering business, and invested in a diverse number of businesses over the years. He was a cofounder of Grand Rapids Chair Co. furniture manufacturing and wholesaling, as well as a successful pail factory with his business card painted on the side of the pails. He was an early employer of African Americans in this factory, providing housing in what is known as Comstock Row. He was married twice, first in 1840 to Mary M. Winchester (d. 1863)in New Hampshire, with whom he had four children, and in Jan. 1865 to Cornelia Guild Davis, daughter of pioneer Daniel Guild, and mother of Clara Comstock Russell & Etta Comstock Boltwood.