Humphrey H. Leavitt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Humphrey Howe Leavitt (June 18, 1796 - March 15, 1873) was a U.S. Representative from Ohio.
Born in Suffield, Connecticut to an old New England family involved in the purchase of the Western Reserve (Ohio) from the state of Connecticut, Leavitt moved to the Northwest Territory in 1800 with his parents, Capt. John Wheeler Leavitt and Silence (Fitch) Leavitt, who settled in what became Trumbull County, Ohio. (The town of Leavittsburg in Trumbull County was named for the family.)[1] After beginning his career as a schoolteacher, Leavitt shifted into the law. In 1816 he was admitted to the bar and began his practice in Cadiz, Ohio. He moved to Steubenville, Ohio, in 1819, and he began his service as prosecuting attorney of Jefferson County in 1823. In 1825, Leavitt was elected a member of the Ohio legislature, and in 1827 he was elected to the State Senate. In 1828, he served as clerk of the common pleas and supreme court of Jefferson County in 1828.
Leavitt was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-first Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John M. Goodenow. He was reelected to the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Congresses and served from December 6, 1830, until July 10, 1834, when he resigned to accept a judicial position. He was appointed by President Jackson to be United States judge of the district court for the district of Ohio on June 30, 1834, and served until March 31, 1871, when he resigned.
Leavitt removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1855, when the State was divided into two Federal districts, but he subsequently returned to Springfield in 1871. Later, he began writing of his experiences. Leavitt was a member of the World's Convention on Prison Reform in London in 1872. He died in Springfield, Ohio, March 15, 1873, and was interred in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.
