Thaddeus Leavitt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thaddeus Leavitt was a 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...

, merchant who invented an early cotton gin

Cotton gin

A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed painstakingly by hand...

, as well as joining with seven other 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...

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 eventually settled, founding Leavittsburg, Ohio

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:...

, and settling in 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...

. Leavitt served on a commission in the early nineteenth century to settle boundary disputes between Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

and Connecticut, was a director of one of Connecticut's first banks, and was a shipowner whose vessels traded throughout the Atlantic. Leavitt also kept a journal in which he noted everything from the weather to 'cures' for various ailments to the adoption of the United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

.

Thaddeus Leavitt, Esq.

Esquire

Esquire is a term of West European origin . Depending on the country, the term has different meanings...

was born September 9, 1750 in Suffield to farmer and carpenter John Leavitt and his wife Abiah Kent. Thaddeus Leavitt married Elizabeth King, daughter of Ensign

Ensign (rank)

Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....

William King of Suffield and his wife Lucy Hatheway. A piece of French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

furniture was emblazoned with a brass plaque to commemorate the couple's marriage, and given to them, probably by Leavitt's new King in-laws.

Leavitt became an early Suffield merchant, selectman and Justice of the Peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

, and was known as 'Squire Leavitt.' He ran a store in Suffield, and from an early age began investing in the shipping business. Leavitt was one of Hartford County'

Hartford County, Connecticut

Hartford County is a county located in the north central part of the US state of Connecticut. The 2010 Census records show that the county population is at 894,014 making it the second most populated county in Connecticut....

s leading citizens, and became wealthy in his dealings as a merchant and shipowner. His ships traded as far afield as the West Indies and other farflung destinations, and the entrepreneurial Leavitt acted as both importer and exporter. Thanks to his increasing wealth, Leavitt built the home later known in Suffield as the Harmon House on High Street.

Eventually Leavitt's business interests extended as far as Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. He used the profits from his increasingly lucrative trading to join seven other prominent Connecticut

Connecticut

men in purchasing the Western Reserve lands from the state of Connecticut, which the state had offered for sale in exchange for funds paid into the state's treasury for educational purposes. Thaddeus Leavitt Esq. and Suffield businessmen Oliver Phelps

Oliver Phelps

Oliver Phelps was born in Poquonock, Connecticut and moved to Suffield, Connecticut, where he apprenticed to a local merchant. He shortly thereafter became a tavern keeper in Granville, Massachusetts. During the Revolution he was Deputy Commissary of the Continental Army and served until the end...

(then the largest landowner in America), Gideon Granger

Gideon Granger

Gideon Granger was an early American politician and lawyer. He was the father of Francis Granger.Born in Suffield, Connecticut, Granger attended and graduated from Yale University and became a lawyer. He was considered a brilliant political essayist...

, Luther Loomis and Asahel Hatheway owned between them one-quarter of all the lands assigned to Connecticut in the Western Reserve.

Also investing in 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...

were other of the state's most powerful men. Another investor in the new western lands was Leavitt family relation 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...

, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, former United States Senator from Connecticut and a chief framer of the United States Constitution

United States Constitution

. (Ellsworth's share of the Reserve alone came to over acre km2 and embraced much of modern-day Cleveland). One of the first settlers of the Western Reserve was John Leavitt

John Leavitt (Ohio settler)

Capt. John Wheeler Leavitt , born in Suffield, Connecticut, was an early settler of Ohio's Western Reserve lands, where members of his family had bought large tracts from the state of Connecticut, and where Capt. Leavitt became an early innkeeper, politician and landowner in Warren, Trumbull...

, brother of Thaddeus and founder of a family who went on to become prominent 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...

citizens.

In 1803 Leavitt was among several Connecticut citizens chosen to resolve a dispute between the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts

Massachusetts

concerning the border between the two states. (Suffield was once considered part of Massachusetts at the time that Thaddeus Leavitt's ancestor Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

Joshua Leavitt arrived in Suffield from his birthplace in Hingham, Massachusetts

Hingham, Massachusetts

Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...

). Leavitt was one of a succession of trustees ordered to resolve the ongoing conflict between the two New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

states.

Leavitt's appointment to the border commission flowed from his mercantile interests in the region. In 1805, he joined with several citizens of Connecticut and Massachusetts to form a company designated by the legislature as "The Proprietors of the Springfield Bridge". The corporation's aim was building a bridge over the Connecticut River

Connecticut River

The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...

linking West Springfield

West Springfield, Massachusetts

The Town of West Springfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 28,391 at the 2010 census...

and Springfield, Massachusetts

Springfield, Massachusetts

Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...

.

Within the state of Connecticut, Leavitt's interests came to embrace the state's burgeoning development. He served as one of the earliest directors of the newly-incorporated Hartford Bank (later the Hartford National Bank). Merchant Leavitt even had his fingers in the state's agricultural economy, serving on the committee of the Hartford County Agricultural Society.

Unusually for an early merchant, pressed for time, Leavitt kept a long-running diary about events in Suffield and the vicinity. (The diary today is in the collection of the Kent Memorial Library in Suffield, and its pages have been transcribed into a typewritten manuscript for easier reading.) In its pages, Leavitt noted many of the day-to-day occurrences in Suffield, including an entry from December 1, 1802, on a cure for whooping cough; another for a cure for a spider bite; and an entry from March 1803 for "a Receipt [ie, instructions] for taking film off a horses eye". Leavitt took note of the raising of a new Meeting house

Meeting house

A meeting house describes a building where a public meeting takes place. This includes secular buildings which function like a town or city hall, and buildings used for religious meetings, particularly of some non-conformist Christian denominations....

, and on February 8, 1788, he made this entry: "We this day have certain Inteligence from the state convention Boston Massachusetts that they have adopted the Feaderal Constitution by a Majority in favr of it of 19--passd 5th Inst."

Thaddeus Leavitt and his wife Elizabeth had two children who married Loomis siblings: a son, Thaddeus Leavitt Jr., who married Jemima Loomis of Suffield; and a daughter Elizabeth Leavitt, who married Jemima's brother Hon. Luther Loomis. Descendants of Thaddeus Leavitt Jr., who also became a Suffield merchant, include his grandsons, the three Hunt brothers: architect Richard Morris Hunt

Richard Morris Hunt

Richard Morris Hunt was an American architect of the nineteenth century and a preeminent figure in the history of American architecture...

; Boston painter William Morris Hunt

William Morris Hunt

William Morris Hunt , American painter, was born at Brattleboro, Vermont to Jane Maria Hunt and Hon. Jonathan Hunt, who raised one of the preeminent families in American art...

; and the lawyer and photography pioneer Leavitt Hunt

Leavitt Hunt

Col. Leavitt Hunt was a Harvard-educated attorney and photography pioneer who was one of the first people to photograph the Middle East...

.

Thaddeus Leavitt Esq., a longtime stalwart of Connecticut's Democratic party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

, is buried in the Old Burying Ground of the First Congregational Church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

of Suffield, also known as the First Church of Christ, established in 1698.

External links

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See also

External links