Ashley Day Leavitt
Encyclopedia
Rev. Dr. Ashley Day Leavitt (1877–1959) was a Yale-educated Congregational minister who led the State Street Church in Portland, Maine
, and later the Harvard Congregational Church in Brookline, Massachusetts
. Leavitt was a frequent public speaker during the early twentieth century, and was awarded an honorary degree from Bowdoin College
for his pastorship of several congregations during wartime.
and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society. Burke subsequently became a minister for the United Church of Christ
, and served as pastor of the denominations' first church in Maine at Williston in suburban Portland, Maine
from 1872 to 1876.
Ashley Day Leavitt was born October 10, 1877, in Chicago
, Illinois
to Burke Fay and Lena (Day) Leavitt. Leavitt's name "Ashley" was taken from that of the maiden name of the wife of his ancestor Dr. Roswell Leavitt, a Massachusetts native and longtime physician in Cornish, New Hampshire
who married Dorothy Ashley, a native of Deerfield
, Massachusetts, in 1798 in Greenfield
, Massachusetts. Leavitt's father went on to be pastor at the Town Church of Manchester
, New Hampshire in 1893. From at least 1900 to 1909, his father was a minister of Melrose Highlands Congregational Church in Melrose
, Massachusetts, and later took up a pastor's post in Lincoln Park
in suburban Chicago.
Leavitt himself was educated at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then at Yale College. In 1900, Leavitt was a member of Skull and Bones
, an elite secret society
based at Yale University
, in New Haven
, Connecticut. He also was on the Yale debating team. From Yale, Leavitt attended Hartford Theological Seminary
.
Leavitt's first ministerial job was as assistant pastor of South Church in Hartford
, Connecticut, then subsequently at Congregational churches in Willimantic
, Connecticut, Concord
, New Hampshire and at Portland, Maine. In June 1903, Leavitt gave a speech at the Yale alumni meeting and Medical School anniversary exercise. On September 7, 1904, Leavitt married Myrtle Rose Hart of Barkhamsted
, Connecticut. They had two children: Hart Day Leavitt
, a longtime professor of English at Phillips Academy
in Andover
, Massachusetts; and Julia Leavitt, born at Cumberland
, Maine, in 1915. While at Portland, Maine, Leavitt was honored with giving the 1905 undergraduate commencement speech
at the University of Connecticut
, where he spoke on "The Individual, Law and Liberty."
camps at home and abroad during World War I. The YMCA's own World War I efforts were memorialized in Yip Yip Yaphank
, a Broadway musical developed in 1917 by Irving Berlin
to included a song entitled "I Can Always Find a Little Sunshine in the Y.M.C.A."
At the height of World War I in 1918, Leavitt was the Pastor of the State Street Congregational Church in Portland. In awarding Leavitt a Doctor of Divinity
(D.D.) honorary degree that same year, Bowdoin College
noted that Leavitt "at all times an eloquent preacher of Christian duty, and in wartime a convincing teacher of the principle that only the righteous nation that keepeth truth may enter in the gates of the Kingdom."
In 1921, Leavitt was serving in a two-year position on the Congregational Educational Foundation. In June 1925, he conducted the services in Appleton Chapel at Harvard University. Rev. Leavitt also frequently spoke at the graduation exercises of nearby Radcliffe College
.
In 1927, Leavitt was the pastor at Harvard Church
. In December of that year, he attended the Centennial of the Boston Seaman's Friend Society
and spoke about the predecessors to the society,
In November 1928, Swami Yogananda
spoke to the Harvard Congregational Church during Leavitt's tenure, and Leavitt later wrote to the Swami thanking him for the speech: "Best of all was the background of fine understanding which made all feel in the same human brotherhood with you."
Prior to 1941, Leavitt was a frequent speaker at Phillips Academy
, the same University preparatory school
in Andover where his son Hart, a graduate of Andover's rival Phillips Exeter Academy
, had become a professor. In 1948, Leavitt spoke at Union Chapel at Little Boar's Head
, New Hampshire.
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, and later the Harvard Congregational Church in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
. Leavitt was a frequent public speaker during the early twentieth century, and was awarded an honorary degree from Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
for his pastorship of several congregations during wartime.
Early years
Ashley Leavitt's father was Burke Fay Leavitt. In 1868, Leavitt's father Burke was living in Melrose Highlands, MassachusettsMelrose Highlands, Massachusetts
Melrose Highlands is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city of Melrose, Massachusetts. Its zip code was 02177, before the Highlands post office was closed; the Melrose zip code of 02176 is now used, although mail marked as 02177 is still deliverable....
and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an academic honor society. Burke subsequently became a minister for the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
, and served as pastor of the denominations' first church in Maine at Williston in suburban Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
from 1872 to 1876.
Ashley Day Leavitt was born October 10, 1877, in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
to Burke Fay and Lena (Day) Leavitt. Leavitt's name "Ashley" was taken from that of the maiden name of the wife of his ancestor Dr. Roswell Leavitt, a Massachusetts native and longtime physician in Cornish, New Hampshire
Cornish, New Hampshire
Cornish is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,640 at the 2010 census. Cornish has three covered bridges. Each August, it is home to the Cornish Fair.-History:...
who married Dorothy Ashley, a native of Deerfield
Deerfield, Massachusetts
Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,750 as of the 2000 census. Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area in Western Massachusetts, lying only north of the city of Springfield.Deerfield includes the...
, Massachusetts, in 1798 in Greenfield
Greenfield, Massachusetts
Greenfield is a city in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,456 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Franklin County. Greenfield is home to Greenfield Community College, the Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Franklin County Fair...
, Massachusetts. Leavitt's father went on to be pastor at the Town Church of Manchester
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
, New Hampshire in 1893. From at least 1900 to 1909, his father was a minister of Melrose Highlands Congregational Church in Melrose
Melrose, Massachusetts
-Government:Robert J. Dolan is the mayor. Melrose is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives by Paul Brodeur . Katherine Clark is the state senator for wards 1 through 5 and Thomas McGee is the state senator for wards 6 and 7. Melrose is part of the seventh Congressional...
, Massachusetts, and later took up a pastor's post in Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park, Chicago
Lincoln Park, is one of the 77 community areas on Chicago, Illinois North Side, USA. Named after Lincoln Park, a vast park bordering Lake Michigan, the community area is anchored by the Lincoln Park Zoo and DePaul University...
in suburban Chicago.
Leavitt himself was educated at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
The Cambridge Rindge and Latin School is a public high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.The school, serving grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Cambridge Public Schools....
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then at Yale College. In 1900, Leavitt was a member of Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
, an elite secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
based at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, in New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, Connecticut. He also was on the Yale debating team. From Yale, Leavitt attended Hartford Theological Seminary
Hartford Seminary
Hartford Seminary is a theological college in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.-History:Seminaries in the city of Hartford date back to 1833. In 1913, the current Hartford Seminary came into existence through the combination of three Hartford-based schools affiliated with the city's Congregationalist...
.
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, Connecticut, then subsequently at Congregational churches in Willimantic
Willimantic, Connecticut
Willimantic is a census-designated place and former city located in the town of Windham in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The population was estimated at 15,823 at the 2000 census. It is home to Eastern Connecticut State University, as well as the Windham Textile and History Museum....
, Connecticut, Concord
Concord, New Hampshire
The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....
, New Hampshire and at Portland, Maine. In June 1903, Leavitt gave a speech at the Yale alumni meeting and Medical School anniversary exercise. On September 7, 1904, Leavitt married Myrtle Rose Hart of Barkhamsted
Barkhamsted, Connecticut
Barkhamsted is a town in Litchfield County in Connecticut and contains six villages, West Hill, Mallory, Center Hill, Washington Hill, Pleasant Valley and Riverton. The population was 3,494 at the 2000 census...
, Connecticut. They had two children: Hart Day Leavitt
Hart Day Leavitt
Hart Day Leavitt was a longtime English teacher at Phillips Andover Academy, amateur jazz musician, the author of a bestselling book on grammar and writing, and the professor of many notable Andover graduates, including Jack Lemmon, H. G. Bissinger and President George H. W...
, a longtime professor of English at Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
in Andover
Andover, Massachusetts
Andover is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It was incorporated in 1646 and as of the 2010 census, the population was 33,201...
, Massachusetts; and Julia Leavitt, born at Cumberland
Cumberland, Maine
Cumberland is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,211 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, Maine, in 1915. While at Portland, Maine, Leavitt was honored with giving the 1905 undergraduate commencement speech
Commencement speech
A commencement speech or commencement address is a speech given to graduating students, generally at a university, although the term is also used for secondary education institutions. The "commencement" is a ceremony in which degrees or diplomas are conferred upon graduating students...
at the University of Connecticut
University of Connecticut
The admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
, where he spoke on "The Individual, Law and Liberty."
World War I
Leavitt enlisted and served in YMCAYMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
camps at home and abroad during World War I. The YMCA's own World War I efforts were memorialized in Yip Yip Yaphank
Yip Yip Yaphank
Yip Yip Yaphank is the name of musical revue composed and produced by Irving Berlin in 1918 while he was a recruit during World War I in the United States Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York.-From idea to the stage:...
, a Broadway musical developed in 1917 by Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...
to included a song entitled "I Can Always Find a Little Sunshine in the Y.M.C.A."
At the height of World War I in 1918, Leavitt was the Pastor of the State Street Congregational Church in Portland. In awarding Leavitt a Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced academic degree in divinity. Historically, it identified one who had been licensed by a university to teach Christian theology or related religious subjects....
(D.D.) honorary degree that same year, Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
noted that Leavitt "at all times an eloquent preacher of Christian duty, and in wartime a convincing teacher of the principle that only the righteous nation that keepeth truth may enter in the gates of the Kingdom."
In 1921, Leavitt was serving in a two-year position on the Congregational Educational Foundation. In June 1925, he conducted the services in Appleton Chapel at Harvard University. Rev. Leavitt also frequently spoke at the graduation exercises of nearby Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
.
Memorial Church of Harvard University
The Memorial Church of Harvard University, more commonly known as the Harvard Memorial Church is a building on the campus of Harvard University.-Predecessors:...
. In December of that year, he attended the Centennial of the Boston Seaman's Friend Society
Boston Seaman's Aid Society
The Boston Seaman's Aid Society was a women's charitable organizations founded in Boston in 1833 with the goal of improving the condition and character of seamen and their families. The first president of the society was famed author, poet, and editor Sarah Josepha Hale...
and spoke about the predecessors to the society,
"But this Society was the successor of another organization which was called ‘The Society for the Moral and Religious Improvement of the Poor’. That is the kind of thing they were doing one hundred years ago. This Society for the Moral and Religious Improvement of the Poor was the successor of another Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of the Seaman. Fancy trying to do business in such an organization today! But that is what they had in a great deal of their religion a hundred years ago - a kind of condescension. The people that were capable the people that were fortunate, went out in pity to do work for the unfortunate, and they expected a certain subserviency and obeisance on the part of those who were the recipients of the benefaction. A finer democracy has come now. . . No Christian today thinks of going out to elevate his fellow man."
In November 1928, Swami Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda , born Mukunda Lal Ghosh , was an Indian yogi and guru who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a...
spoke to the Harvard Congregational Church during Leavitt's tenure, and Leavitt later wrote to the Swami thanking him for the speech: "Best of all was the background of fine understanding which made all feel in the same human brotherhood with you."
Prior to 1941, Leavitt was a frequent speaker at Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
, the same University preparatory school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
in Andover where his son Hart, a graduate of Andover's rival Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
, had become a professor. In 1948, Leavitt spoke at Union Chapel at Little Boar's Head
North Hampton, New Hampshire
North Hampton is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,301 at the 2010 census. While the majority of the town is inland, North Hampton includes a part of New Hampshire's limited Atlantic seacoast.-History:...
, New Hampshire.
See also
- Hart Day LeavittHart Day LeavittHart Day Leavitt was a longtime English teacher at Phillips Andover Academy, amateur jazz musician, the author of a bestselling book on grammar and writing, and the professor of many notable Andover graduates, including Jack Lemmon, H. G. Bissinger and President George H. W...