Judith & son - chichester, nh

   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. 

The house is still there today, at the end of "Leavitt Road". A plaque on the front of the home (as Google Street View actually reaches this location) dates the structure back to the 1760's (prior to this Leavitt family arriving in town).

GPS: 43.227317, -71.415385