REUBEN TOWLE LEAVITT Jr, the son of Reuben T and Nancy M (Brown) Leavitt, was born in Pittsfield, NH on 11 Nov 1839 [NH vr]. He died on 30 Aug 1919 and was buried in Floral Park Cemetery, Pittsfield, NH [NH Death Rec]. He was married, on 4 Sept 1871 in South Berwick, Maine [ME Marr Rec], to EMMA A WATSON, the daughter of John and Betsey (Kenniston) Watson. She was born 26 Aug 1845 in Pittsfield, NH, and died there on 13 June 1932 [NH Death Rec]. During the Civil War, he enlisted on 16 Aug 1862 and was mustered in on 5 Sept, serving in Co. F of the 12th NH Infantry. He was wounded in the Battle of Chancellorsville on 3 May 1863, being shot through the left knee, and was taken prisoner. He was released 12 days later, having had no care given his wounds and, as a result, would be disabled for life. Sent to an army hospital, he would not consent to his leg being amputated, and was discharged on 21 Nov 1863. See the "History of Pittsfield, N.H. in the Great Rebellion" [pg 104-105, on archive.org] He and his family removed to Concord, NH prior to the 1850 census, and had lived in Kittery for seven years (while father Reuben Sr was a lighthouse keeper), but was soon back in Pittsfield.
Reuben and Emma had three children:
i. Lila Maude Leavitt b. 26 Sept 1872, d. 2 July 1882 ii. Harry Edgar Leavitt b. 5 Apr 1879; d. 12 Oct 1969 iii. Inez Maude Leavitt b. 22 July 1883; d. 13 May 1902 According to the book LEAVITT Descendants of Thomas Leavitt, the Immigrant 1616-1696, and Isabella Bland (pg 143), his ancestry was: Reuben T Jr (Reuben T, Reuben T, Benjamin, Thomas, Aretas, Thomas)
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John Wood Leavitt was sixteen years and six months old when he left the family farm in East Winthrop, Maine , and took the 10-mile trek to Augusta. He had just enlisted, on the 20th of November 1863, as a "20"-year old, enrolled by "A.S." (Arnold Sweet) Richmond, a fellow townsman and acting deputy provost marshal. As a private in the Seventh Maine Battery (of Light Artillery), he was mustered into service for three years, on 30 Dec. 1863. Through the month of January, 1864, while other volunteers continued to arrive, the men were formed into detachments and drilled on a daily basis at Camp Coburn in Augusta. At the end of the month, John Leavitt received a state bounty of $100, as well as a U.S. bounty of $60 and $13 monthly advance pay. The unit left the capital on the morning of 1 Feb. and headed south. Transported via rail and steamer, the 7th Battery arrived in Washington, DC on the morning of 5 February 1864, and settled into Camp Barry, the Artillery Camp of Instruction. Having already left a few men behind in Augusta due to sickness, the camp life and change of climate continued to take its toll. A letter, written by someone stationed at Camp Barry and published in the Oxford Democrat on 8 April 1864, pg 2, mentioned the 7th Battery: "It came here with 143 men...[ ]. There has been much sickness in this company since its arrival. Four have died..." John W Leavitt was one of those four men, succumbing to double pneumonia on the 16th of March, 1864. He was two months shy of his seventeenth birthday. His body was returned home, where he was buried in the East Winthrop Cemetery, beside his sister Mary, who had died in 1860, at age 14. Notes/sources:
Photos taken 21 Sept 2019 (by S. Dow) Descendants of John Leavitt Through His Son, Israel and Lydia Jackson (pg 77) History of the Seventh Maine Light Artillery (archive.org) Seventh Maine Battery Descriptive Roll (pg 63); Monthly Return (pg 195); Muster In Roll (pg 108 pay, pg 109); Muster Out Roll (pg 130) Maine, Civil War Enlistment Papers: John W Leavitt (Declaration of recruit) - being under 21 years of age, a parent or guardian needed to sign a consent form. As seen below, John's father Hiram H. Leavitt signed off on his son being 20 years old. In June of 2017, I visited the Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery in Chichester, New Hampshire, to photograph and document the Leavitt burials there. In one plot, I took notice of Judith Leavitt and her son Ephraim Merrill, who had died a day apart (our Samuel genealogy book, on pg 85, errs in his death year), he being one of six children who died relatively young within this family. Searching the old newspapers online [at GenealogyBank, a paid subscription site], the above two were the only ones I was able to find from the 1820's. The following notice is from the New Hampshire Patriot & State Gazette, printed on Monday, April 2nd, 1821 (pg 3): At Chichester, March 19, Mrs. Judith Leavitt, aged 43; and on the 20th, Mr. Ephraim M. Leavitt, aged 21; wife and son of Mr. Ephraim Leavitt - both of consumption, and both buried the same day. Mrs. L. had been for years a member of the Methodist church, and was highly respected in life, and her death is deeply lamented. The son was a promising young man, and his premature exit is deeply regretted. The afflicted father has been called within the past year to follow to the grave no less than four adults of his own family. Mr. Leavitt had, during the prior year, lost two other children: Dorothy Frost Leavitt, on 12 Apr 1820, and Mehitable Clement Leavitt, on 26 Sept. They are also buried in this same lot in Knowlton Cemetery (for more grave photos in this yard, see "Chichester Cemeteries"). Ephraim Leavitt would remarry in 1822, to Abigail Piper, and relocated to Levant, Maine the following year. He died in 1846, and was buried in the Simpson's Corner Cemetery in Corinth, Penobscot, Maine. More about: Prior to leaving town, Ephraim Leavitt sold his property to his son, Jeremy Nathaniel Cogswell Leavitt [Rock. Deeds, Bk 235, pg 471], who would pass it on to his son Augustus. Following his death in 1886, the homestead was occupied by his widow, Betsey (Towle), the "Mrs. B. Leavitt" seen on the 1892 map of Chichester, NH.
In the Hingham Centre Cemetery sits a brick monument, atop which lies a now undecipherable slab. Sharing this lot are the gravestones of Israel Leavitt (d. 1696, though stone says 1690 or '99), and his father John Leavitt (d. 1691). This is the tomb of Jacob Leavitt, the great-great-grandson of Deacon John, and the man who is said to have been responsible for having the remains of his ancestor(s) reinterred here. As is evident today, the stone monument is easily covered by lichens, which makes any inscriptions impossible to read. However, we do have a record of what was written, or at least a partial transcription. In 1996, NALF officers hired a Weymouth, MA man to repair the brick work and to clean the slab of growth [NALF Cemetery Report, 1996; reprinted in Desc. of Israel Leavitt 1997 Update, pg 93]. When completed, only the following could be read: JOHN LEAVITT DIED 1 - 9 - JACOB LEAVITT DIED JANUARY 1826 AGED 85 ----- WIFE DIED ----- ----- AGED ----- Jacob Leavitt died on 7 Jan 1826, and his wife Leah (Fearing) died on 14 Oct 1838. With the grave markers of Israel and John Leavitt also in this lot, and John's name inscribed on the stone, one would hope their remains (had they survived over a century underground) were also removed from their original burying places near the Old Ship Church (see below) when the stones were brought over to the Plain. The question is, who else is buried in this tomb? In his will [Plymouth County Probate, case #12506], dated the 6th of July 1824, he wrote that his "tomb should be kept for the use of the family to the latest generation". Jacob Leavitt had nine children, and most of them had offspring of their own, so there may have been two dozen people of the "latest generation" at the time of his will being written. Two of his sons were deceased by 1824: Benjamin and Elijah. While the former had moved to Portland, Maine and died there, the latter passed away in Hingham but there's no record of his burial place. With three of his children having stones in front of this lot (so either buried there or were placed in the vault), Elijah is very likely in the tomb with his parents. Most of Jacob's other children and their families have lots elsewhere in the Centre Cemetery, so did not take up the offer left to them by their father. Daughter Lydia (wife of Edward Battles) died in Charlestown, MA in 1860, her death rec says she was buried in Hingham, and may be with her parents.
Fifty years of burials had taken place there in the 1600's, though it seems most were without gravestones. A single burial plot was made for the majority of them in the Hingham Cemetery where, in 1839, the town erected a large monument in their honor. Those grave markers that did exist were placed around this new location. On the 1873 map below, [1] is Main St., where its shape bears the evidence of running alongside the southern part of the hillside [2] that once sat there. [3] is the reinterment place of those bodies removed during the road construction. As late as 1877, bodies were still being dug up at this location [History of Hingham, Vol 1, Part 2, pg 356], found in front of the homes of Caleb B. Marsh and John Siders (as can be seen beside the Derby Academy on the above map). Their houses, built in the 1750-70's (according to the tax assessor database), shared the hill with the burial ground. From a 2017 street view, the Academy building (now the Historical Society, left), the Marsh home (right), and the Siders place (far right) all stand, and this viewing angle helps show how the hillside had been cut away. While it is said [Desc. of Israel Leavitt, pg 22] that Jacob Leavitt was the one responsible for the reinterment of Deacon John (and presumably Israel, as well) to the "Plain" (now the Centre or Center) Cemetery, this project was done prior to the town's 1831 vote for the removal of the original burial ground, as Jacob died in 1826. Perhaps, in the years prior, town meetings had proposed the excavation on Main Street, so Jacob Leavitt took the initiative and had his ancestors saved from a mass burial by having them brought over to his tomb prior to his death.
See also: A Visit with Deacon John F. ALBERT LEAVITT was a few months shy of his eleventh birthday when he left his home that Saturday morning, the 2nd of January 1886, telling his mother that he was going up to visit his grandmother. Instead, he headed out onto the river with a few of his friends to go ice skating. The river was not totally iced over, however, and young Albert ventured too close to the edge and fell in. Jack Hayes, a local man being close by, made an attempt to grab Albert, but he also slipped into the water. He was able to pull himself out, but the boy was lost under the water. Once word got back into the city, crowds of people came down to the river, to help in the search. Solon S. Andrews, a Biddeford man, arrived that afternoon with diving equipment, to search for Albert's body, while men in boats and rafts dragged the river with grappling hooks and poles. Several of the searchers fell into the river on Sunday, due to the thin ice, but were saved by others close by. The distraught mother, widow Mrs B. Frank Leavitt, would even offer a $500 reward for whoever was able to find her son's body. Young Albert's body was found that Friday, January 8th, down by Cow Island. He was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, in Saco. More about: While the majority of Leavitt names living in Saco, Maine descend from the "Thomas line" (ie. Descendants of Thomas Leavitt of Hampton), this particular family can be found in the Descendants of Samuel Leavitt book, on 134. Father Benjamin Franklin Leavitt, son of Benjamin and Sarah E (Stevenson), had come from Exeter, NH. This volume, however, only listed a daughter for B. Frank and his wife Laura (Patterson), but left out son F. Albert Leavitt. The above 1872 map of Saco shows (in red) where "F. Leavitt" (Benjamin Franklin) and his family lived on Common Street, while the blue circle was the home of "E. Patterson", who was the widow Eunice, Albert's maternal grandmother. Links:
Portland Daily Press, 4 Jan 1886, pg 1; 6 Jan, pg 1 The Biddeford Journal, Friday, 8 Jan 1886, pg 3 The Biddeford Journal, 15 Jan 1886, pg 3 Biddeford Weekly Journal, 27 May 1921, pg 8 [Laura's obit] |
gravestones and their storiesMore than just names and dates engraved on a grave stone, a look into the Leavitt families found in our cemetery photographs. Archives
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