John Leavitt (Ohio settler) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Capt. John Wheeler Leavitt (1755–1815), born in Suffield, Connecticut

Suffield, Connecticut

Suffield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It had once been within the boundaries of Massachusetts. The town is located in the Connecticut River Valley with the town of Enfield neighboring to the east. In 1900, 3,521 people lived in Suffield; and in 1910, 3,841. As of the...

, was an early settler of Ohio's Western Reserve lands, where members of his family had bought large tracts from the state of Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, and where Capt. Leavitt became an early innkeeper, politician and landowner in Warren

Warren

- Definition :Warren refers to a network of underground interconnecting rabbit burrows, a place where rabbits breed and live, or an overcrowded place or building.- Geographical names :* Warrens, Saint Michael, Barbados* Warren, Manitoba, Canada...

, Trumbull County, Ohio

Trumbull County, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 225,116 people, 89,020 households, and 61,690 families residing in the county. The population density was 365 people per square mile . There were 95,117 housing units at an average density of 154 per square mile...

. Capt. Leavitt was a member of the Connecticut Land Company

Connecticut Land Company

The Connecticut Land Company was formed in the late eighteenth century to survey and encourage settlement in the Connecticut Western Reserve, part of the Old Northwest Territory. The Western Reserve is located in Northeast Ohio with its hub being Cleveland. In 1795, the Connecticut Land Company...

and with his cousin Ebenezer King from Suffield paid over $51,000 for some 78500 acres (317.7 km²) of Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

land, which included the township of Warren. The Leavitt family of Warren would go on to play a substantial role in the history of their adopted town and in Ohio.

Early life

John Wheeler Leavitt was the son of Abiah (Kent) Leavitt and John Leavitt of Suffield, a carpenter, farmer and landowner whose family was among the first settlers of Suffield. John Leavitt's brother Thaddeus

Thaddeus Leavitt

Thaddeus Leavitt was a Suffield, Connecticut, merchant who invented an early cotton gin, as well as joining with seven other Connecticut men to purchase most of the three-million-plus acres of the Western Reserve lands in Ohio from the government of Connecticut, land on which some of his family...

, a prominent Suffield merchant, was among the eight original purchasers of the Western Reserve from the state of Connecticut

Connecticut

in 1796. Other extended family members were also involved in purchase of Western Reserve lands including Oliver Ellsworth

Oliver Ellsworth

Oliver Ellsworth was an American lawyer and politician, a revolutionary against British rule, a drafter of the United States Constitution, and the third Chief Justice of the United States. While at the Federal Convention, Ellsworth moved to strike the word National from the motion made by Edmund...

, whose son Henry Leavitt Ellsworth

Henry Leavitt Ellsworth

Henry Leavitt Ellsworth was a Yale-educated attorney who became the first Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, where he encouraged innovation by inventors Samuel F.B. Morse and Samuel Colt...

later traveled to the Reserve to oversee family land grants, staying at the inn belonging to his cousin John Leavitt.

Capt. John Leavitt, a farmer and merchant, married Silence Fitch of Suffield in 1777. In 1800 John Leavitt and his wife set out for the Western Reserve, where the town of Leavittsburg

Leavittsburg, Ohio

Leavittsburg is a census-designated place in Trumbull County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,200 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren–Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

was named for the family with the expectation that it would become the market town for Trumbull County. (John Leavitt was also one of the original proprietors of Aurora, Ohio, with members of the King, Phelps, and Granger families of Suffield. Leavitt was also an original proprietor of Mantua, Ohio

Mantua, Ohio

Mantua is a village in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It was formed from portions of Mantua Township in the Connecticut Western Reserve. The population was 1,046 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

Founding of Warren

On his arrival in the Western Reserve, Leavitt discovered that the prospective town of Warren was better situated than Leavittsburg, having more open bottom land and better mill sites. The original ownership of 'township four, range four' – what became Warren – was vested in Ebenezer King Jr. and Capt. Leavitt. On his arrival in the summer of 1800, Capt. Leavitt built a cabin on the west side of what would later become Warren's Main Street. Leavitt subsequently returned to Connecticut, then came back to Warren the following year with wife Silence. The couple had eight children, many of whom later moved to Ohio: William, John Jr, Cynthia, Sally, Henry Fitch, Abdiah, Humphrey Howe and Albert.

The new town, according to some accounts, was infested at the time of Leavitt's arrival by enormous rattlesnake

Rattlesnake

Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae . There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central...

s. In one early account, written when Warren consisted of 16 settlers, an observer mentions a hunt which netted 486 rattlers. "At this time," wrote the observer, "rattlesnakes abounded in some places." The hunt he witnessed, in which cudgel-wielding settlers chased the snakes off their rock ledges and into their dens, was deemed a success, with the "slain collected into heaps... a good portion of which were larger than a man's leg below the calf, and over five feet in length."

But Warren's location – rattlesnakes aside – meant the town soon became the dominant town in the Mahoning Valley

Mahoning Valley

The Mahoning Valley is a geographic valley encompassing the area of northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania that drains into the Mahoning River. The Mahoning River empties into the Beaver River, which empties into the Ohio River. The Mahoning River flows through Lawrence and Mercer counties in...

region. "Warren had influence that Youngstown did not possess", said the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, referring to Warren's early prominence in the region. Later settlers also chose to gather at the more propitiously-located Warren, instead of at Leavittsburg.

Shortly after his arrival, Capt. Leavitt converted his new home into an inn and tavern, opening the first hotel in Warren. He was followed to Warren by a steady stream of other family members, including his son John Jr., known as 'Esquire John', who was county treasurer when he died at Warren in 1815; Capt. John's brother Samuel, known as 'Esquire Samuel,' born in Suffield in 1756, who upon visiting Warren in 1800, purchased a farm next door to that of his nephew John Jr. (Samuel Leavitt moved to Warren fulltime in 1802, bringing his wife Abigail Kent Austin with him from Suffield. Following the death of his wife in 1816, Samuel Leavitt moved into a house on Main Street in Warren.)

Other family members

Many members of the family became prominent, including Samuel Leavitt, who served as an Ohio state representative

Ohio House of Representatives

The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate....

; John Leavitt Jr., who served as Trumbull County treasurer; Humphrey Howe Leavitt, the son of pioneer Capt. John Leavitt and an early United States Congressman and United States District Court

United States district court

The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...

judge; and Daniel Leavitt, the first public school teacher in Warren. John Leavitt, the original family settler, acted as captain of the local militia

Militia (United States)

The role of militia, also known as military service and duty, in the United States is complex and has transformed over time.Spitzer, Robert J.: The Politics of Gun Control, Page 36. Chatham House Publishers, Inc., 1995. " The term militia can be used to describe any number of groups within the...

, from which he derived his title.

Like most pioneers, the Leavitt family had to provide the initial services in the region. John Leavitt Jr. founded the first public school. Capt. John Leavitt's first public house and tavern became the nucleus of Warren's growing community, serving as temporary headquarters for the region's first military officials. The first race track

Race track

A race track is a purpose-built facility for racing of animals , automobiles, motorcycles or athletes. A race track may also feature grandstands or concourses. Some motorsport tracks are called speedways.A racetrack is a permanent facility or building...

in the area was built on the Leavitt farm, sporting a large grandstand for spectators. (A later canal built through the farm destroyed the site, and the first race track decayed.)

Eventually, members of the extended Leavitt family in Suffield followed, including Enoch Leavitt (born in 1746, and known as 'Esquire Enoch'), who purchased the land on which most of the town of Warren now stands. Enoch died in 1815 and, like most of the Leavitt family, was buried in the family cemetery at Leavittsburg, largely a wooded area devoid of settlement. Enoch's son, Enoch Jr. became a well-known local physician who resided on his farm at Leavittsburg and by the time of his death in 1827 at age 52 had accumulated roughly 1000 acres (4 km²) of land in Trumbull County.

Leavittsburg, the town named for the early Ohio family, had a gristmill

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

for many years, but largely escaped development. Today it is still rural, and the site of the Leavitt family cemetery, where many members of the family are buried. The first Leavitt settler in Ohio, Capt. John Leavitt, died at Warren in 1815.

Early life

Founding of Warren

Other family members

Further reading

See also