Leavitt (surname)

Leavitt is an Anglo-Norman surname variant^[1] and may refer to:

• Rev. Ashley Day Leavitt (born 1877), Yale graduate, minister, Harvard Congregational Church, Brookline, Massachusetts
• Benjamin Hanson Leavitt, pioneer rancher born in Clinton, Maine, settler of Leavitt, California
• Rev. Bradford Leavitt (born 1868), Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard-educated pastor of First Unitarian Church, San Francisco, California, 1900; editorial writer, San Francisco Chronicle; later merchant, San Francisco and Woodside, California
• Benson Leavitt, Acting Mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, November 22, 1845, to December 11, 1845, father of Emily Wilder Leavitt
• Caroline Leavitt (born 1952), Quincy, Massachusetts, American novelist
• Charles Wellford Leavitt (1871–1928), eminent landscape architect, urban planner, civil engineer, designed gardens at Long Island and New Jersey estates, as well as parks, country clubs, race courses, stadiums; city planner; cousin of Philadelphia artist Cecilia Beaux
• Dana Gibson Leavitt (born 1926), businessman, former president, Transamerica Corporation, founder, Leavitt Management Company, San Francisco; Napa Valley, California; member, Bohemian Club
• Daniel Leavitt (1801–51), American inventor, firearm manufacturer, Wesson & Leavitt, Massachusetts Arms Company, Chicopee, Massachusetts
• David Leavitt (born 1961), American writer
• David Leavitt (banker) (1791–1879), New York City, Great Barrington, Massachusetts; banker, president of American Exchange Bank of New York, representative of bondholders of Illinois and Michigan Canal; Chicago's Leavitt Street named for him
• David O. Leavitt, (born 1963), lawyer, prosecutor, Congressional candidate, international businessman, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Dudley Leavitt (1830–1908), Mormon pioneer, later profiled by granddaughter, historian Juanita Brooks
• Rev. Dudley Leavitt (minister) (1720–62), minister, Tabernacle Church (formerly First Church), Salem, Massachusetts, Salem's Leavitt Street named for this early minister
• Dudley Leavitt (publisher) (1772–1851), publisher, Leavitt's Farmers' Almanack and Miscellaneous Yearbook, Meredith, New Hampshire
• Edward Chalmers Leavitt (1842–1904), Providence, Rhode Island, prominent New England still life painter, son of Providence pastor Rev. Jonathan Leavitt and Charlotte Esther (Stearns) Leavitt
• Elisha Leavitt (1714–90), owner of Grape Island, Lovells Island, Boston Harbor, infamous Tory in the American Revolutionary War, Hingham, Massachusetts
• Emily Wilder Leavitt (1836–1921), historian, genealogist; one of first female members, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts
• Erasmus Darwin Leavitt, Jr. (1836–1916), mechanical engineer, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Frank McDowell Leavitt (1856–1928), engineer, inventor of machine for manufacturing tin cans, Leavitt-Bliss torpedo used by United States Navy, b. Athens, Ohio, d. Scarsdale, New York, son of John McDowell Leavitt
• Frank Simmons Leavitt (1891–1953), professional name Man Mountain Dean, American wrestler
• Franklin Leavitt (1824–1898), b. Lancaster, New Hampshire, self-taught artist, made one of the earliest maps of New Hampshire's White Mountains
• George Ayres Leavitt (1822–88), publisher, b. Haverhill, Massachusetts, son of Jonathan Leavitt; founder and proprietor, Leavitt & Allen, publishers, New York City
• Capt. George Baker Leavitt, Sr. (1860–1925), born Portland, Maine; Captain of New Bedford, Massachusetts-based whaling ships Thrasher, Grampus, Newport, Balaena and steam whaler Narwhal in Alaska; Arctic explorer; Capt. Leavitt married Inuit Nanouk Elguchiaq; Leavitt Island off Alaska's North Slope named for the early whaling captain
• Col. Gilman Leavitt (1760–1842), merchant, Portsmouth and Exeter, New Hampshire, often trading with Gilman family relations
• Harold J. Leavitt (1922–2007), Professor of Organizational Behavior and Psychology, Emeritus, at Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Harold Walter Leavitt, author, Katahdin Skylines, University of Maine Press, 1970
• Hart Leavitt (1808–81), American abolitionist, operator of Underground Railroad station, Charlemont, Massachusetts
• Hart Day Leavitt (1909–2008), author, Yale University graduate, longtime English teacher, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, son of Rev. Ashley Day Leavitt
• Hazen Leavitt, New Hampshire native, first settler of Leavitt Township, Michigan, 1864
• Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921), American astronomer, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Hiram Leavitt (1824–1901), early settler, innkeeper, judge, Mono County, California, namesake of Leavitt Peak, Leavitt Meadow and Leavitt Lake, eastern Sierra Nevada
• Humphrey H. Leavitt (1796–1873), American congressman, U.S. District Court Judge, Ohio, b. Suffield, Connecticut
• James Madison Leavitt (1826–1903), b. Turner, Maine; later merchant, New York City; donated $10,000 to Turner to build first high school, 1895, subsequently named The Leavitt Institute, today headquarters for Turner's nonprofit organizations
• Jim Leavitt, University of South Florida football coach
• John Leavitt (1608–91), tailor, founding deacon, Old Ship Church, Hingham, Massachusetts, sergeant and Massachusetts selectman, Hingham's Leavitt Street named for him, ancestor of disparate Americans including Sandra Day O'Connor, Richard Morris Hunt and Stephen King
• John Leavitt (1729–1798), Suffield, Connecticut, son of Lieut. Joshua Leavitt, married Abiah Kent; Private, Suffield Militia, at Lexington Alarm, New Haven Alarm; member, Connecticut General Assembly, 1775
• John Leavitt (Ohio settler) (1755–1815), early Ohio settler in the Western Reserve from Connecticut, Warren, Ohio, Leavittsburg, Ohio
• John Faunce Leavitt (1905–74), sailor, boatbuilder, marine artist, maritime writer, Wake of the Coasters, Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut
• John Hooker Leavitt (1831–1906), banker, state senator, b. Heath, Massachusetts, founder, Leavitt and Johnson National Bank, Waterloo, Iowa
• John Howland Leavitt (1918–2009), Flight Lieutenant, No. 617 Squadron RAF; subsequently Office of Strategic Services, Central Intelligence Agency^[2]
• John McDowell Leavitt (1824–1909), LL.D., Episcopal clergyman, author, professor, president, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
• John Wheeler Leavitt (1790–1870), prominent New York City businessman, founder of J. W. & R. Leavitt Company, eventually declared insolvent, b. Washington, Connecticut, brother of David Leavitt (banker), grandfather of American painter Cecilia Beaux
• John Leavitt (born 1956), composer, conductor, teacher, church musician from Wichita, Kansas
• Rev. Jonathan Leavitt (minister) (1731–1802), born Suffield, Connecticut, graduate, Yale College, Congregational minister, Walpole, New Hampshire, first minister, Charlemont, Massachusetts, married Sarah Hooker, great-granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker; sister Jemima Leavitt mother of Chief Justice of the United States Oliver Ellsworth
• Jonathan Leavitt (1764–1830), judge, state senator, banker, Greenfield, Massachusetts
• Jonathan Leavitt (publisher) (c. 1797 – 1851), Andover, Massachusetts, founder, publisher, Leavitt & Trow, New York City, died 1851
• Rev. Jonathan Leavitt (1800–77), pastor, 25 years, Richmond Street Church Providence, Rhode Island, trustee, Amherst College
• Joseph Leavitt (born 1754) Pembroke, Massachusetts, Private, Continental Army, laid down his weapon after three months due to pacifist sympathies, later known as 'Quaker Joe'; first settler of Turner, Maine, built first house
• Lieut. Joshua Leavitt (1687–1732), born Hingham, Massachusetts, early settler Suffield, Connecticut, married Hannah Devotion, daughter of John Devotion of Suffield
• Dr. Joshua Leavitt, early settler of Limerick, Maine, for whom Leavitt Brook is named
• Rev. Joshua Leavitt (1794–1873), abolitionist, editor of The Emancipator, born Heath, Massachusetts
• Dr. Josiah Leavitt (1744–1804), physician, Hingham, Massachusetts, inventor, built clock that hung in window of Old Ship Church; later removed to Boston where he became prominent maker and repairer of organs
• Judith Walzer Leavitt (born 1940), University of Wisconsin–Madison professor of history of medicine
• L. Brooks Leavitt (1878–1941), investment banker, antiquarian book collector, overseer of Bowdoin College, New York City and Wilton, Maine
• Laurence G. Leavitt (1903–2000), longtime headmaster, Vermont Academy, Saxtons River, Vermont
• Lewis Leavitt, medical director, University of Wisconsin–Madison; professor of pediatrics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
• Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt (1830–1912), worldwide temperance crusader, Woman's Christian Temperance Movement, Boston
• Michael O. Leavitt (born 1951), American politician, former Governor of Utah, currently Cabinet Secretary, Health and Human Services
• Michael Leavitt (artist) (born 1977), American sculptor, painter and educator
• Mick Leavitt (born 1959), Broadway producer
• Moses Leavitt (1650–1730), surveyor, selectman, Deputy, Moderator of the General Court, Exeter, New Hampshire
• Myron E. Leavitt (1930–2004), former Lieutenant Governor of Nevada and Nevada Supreme Court Justice
• Oliver Leavitt, member of Inupiaq Eskimo tribe, Barrow, Alaska; whaling captain; Chairman, Board of Directors of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; descendant of George B. Leavitt Sr., Yankee whaling ship captain and Arctic explorer
• R. Scot Leavitt, president, Harvard Crimson; correspondent, Hong Kong bureau chief, senior editor, LIFE magazine; longtime senior editor, Sports Illustrated magazine; Pound Ridge, New York
• Ralph Leavitt (born 1877), president, Leavitt Motor Car Exchange, New York City, later fugitive from justice, York Harbor, Maine
• Ralph W. 'Bud' Leavitt Jr. (1917–94), executive sports editor, The Bangor Daily News, longtime outdoor columnist, Bangor, Maine
• Raphy Leavitt (born 1948), Puerto Rican composer
• Robert Leavitt (1883–1954), American Olympic athlete
• Robert Greenleaf Leavitt (1865–1942), b. Parsonsfield, Maine, Harvard-educated botanist, teacher, Ames Botanical Laboratory, Massachusetts; owner, Blazo-Leavitt House, Parsonsfield, Maine
• Robert Keith Leavitt (1895–1967), Harvard-educated son of Robert Greenleaf Leavitt; author, Noah's Ark, New England Yankees, and the Endless Quest: A Short History of the Original Webster Dictionaries, 1947; founding historian, Baker Street Irregulars
• Col. Roger Hooker Leavitt (1805–85), American abolitionist, operator of Underground Railroad station, Charlemont, Massachusetts
• Ron Leavitt (1947–2008), writer for Married... with Children
• Dr. Roswell Leavitt (1775–1820), m. Dorothy (Ashley) Leavitt, longtime physician, Cornish, New Hampshire
• Roswell Leavitt (1843–1937), Representative, Maine Legislature, 1868; Michigan State Senator, (1889–1890), Michigan Twenty-ninth District; b. Turner, Maine; teacher, lawyer, prosecutor, Antrim County, Michigan; Civil War veteran, 17th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment
• Russell Leavitt, Harvard College class of 1917, vice president and partner, Moody's Investors Service, 1931, Greenwich, Connecticut
• Lieut. Samuel Leavitt (1641–1707), early settler, deputy, member of New Hampshire House of Representatives, Exeter, New Hampshire
• Capt. Samuel Leavitt, a founder and selectman, Deerfield, New Hampshire, Leavitts Hill named for the family
• Scott Leavitt (1879–1966), U.S. Forest Service ranger, Spanish-American War veteran, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Montana
• Capt. Sherwood Leavitt, Saratoga County, New York, New York State Militia, Light Infantry, 32nd Regiment, 1811–12
• Sturgis Elleno Leavitt (1888–1976), graduate, Bowdoin College, Harvard, author, Professor of Spanish, University of North Carolina
• Thaddeus Leavitt (1750–1826), merchant, inventor, patentee of Western Reserve lands in Ohio, Suffield, Connecticut
• Thomas Leavitt (1795–1850), president of Bank of New Brunswick, businessman, diplomat, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada
• Thomas Leavitt (inventor) (1827–99), inventor of first U.S. postmarking machines, 1875, Boston, Massachusetts
• Thomas Leavitt (settler) (ca. 1615–96), farmer, early English settler of Hampton, New Hampshire
• Thomas Dudley Leavitt (1857–1933), early Mormon settler of Bunkerville, Nevada, Utopian community based on United Order principles of cooperative labor and communal property management; Thomas Leavitt House listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• Thomas Hooker Leavitt (1824–1906), Boston, Massachusetts, author and publisher, Facts About Peat as an Article of Fuel, co-proprietor, Leavitt & Hunnewell, Boston, Massachusetts
• Thomas Rowell Leavitt (1834–91), sheriff, Wellsville, Utah, polygamist Mormon settler of Alberta, Canada, founder, Leavitt, Alberta
• Thomas W. Leavitt, director, Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, Massachusetts
• Capt. William Leavitt, founder, 1854, Chase Leavitt & Company, steamship agency, Portland, Maine
• William Homer Leavitt, artist, portrait painter, Newport, Rhode Island, married Ruth Bryan, eldest daughter of William Jennings Bryan; seriously injured when thrown from horse belonging to Gen. Joseph Wheeler, whom Leavitt had just painted, Sept. 1901; divorced by Ruth Bryan, and children adopted by grandfather William Jennings Bryan

Leavitt descendants

• Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (1791–1858), Mayor of Hartford, Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, father of the United States Department of Agriculture, President Aetna Insurance Company, benefactor Yale College, son of Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth
• Leavitt Hunt (1831–1907), Harvard-educated attorney, pioneering photographer, brother of architect Richard Morris Hunt and painter William Morris Hunt, Weathersfield, Vermont and New York City
• Roswell Gilpatric (middle name Leavitt) (1906–96), lawyer and government official, United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, advised President John F. Kennedy during Cuban Missile Crisis, later Chairman, Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation
• Dudley Leavitt Pickman (1779–1846), Salem, Massachusetts, merchant; partner, Devereux, Pickman & Silsbee; state legislator; wealthiest Salem merchant of his day
• Hon. Leavitt Thaxter (1788–1863), Edgartown, Massachusetts, educator, Massachusetts State Senator; Thaxter Academy
• John L. Stevens (middle name Leavitt) (1820–1895), United States Department of State Minister to the Kingdom of Hawai'i, accused of conspiring to overthrow Queen Lili'uokalani
• Carl Leavitt Hubbs (1894–1979), American ichthyologist, Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California
• Leavitt Howe (1836–1904), Princeton, New Jersey, founder with brother Edward Howe and two others of Bay Head Land Company, Bay Head, New Jersey, 1879

References

Further reading

• Noyes, Emily Leavitt. (1941). Leavitt: The descendants of John, the Immigrant Through His Son Moses
• Noyes, Emily Leavitt. (1948). Leavitt: The descendants of John, the Immigrant Through His Son Israel
• Noyes, Emily Leavitt. (1949). Leavitt: The descendants of John, The Immigrant Through His Son Josiah
• Noyes, Emily Leavitt. (1956). Leavitt: The descendants of John, The Immigrant Through His Son Samuel
• Noyes, Emily Leavitt, Berndt, Julia Bumpus (1982). Leavitt: The descendants of John, The Immigrant Through His Son Nehemiah
• Noyes, Emily Leavitt. (1953). Leavitt: Descendants of Thomas Leavitt, the Immigrant (1616–1696), and Isabella Bland
• Leavitt, Brooks Russell. (2002). Leavitt and allied families: For the descendants of V. Russell Leavitt (1891–1946) and Harriet Edna Rice Leavitt (1892–1970), privately printed

See also

• Levett
• Levitt