John Leavitt (Ohio Settler) - Other Family Members

Other Family Members

Many members of the family became prominent, including Samuel Leavitt, who served as an Ohio state representative; John Leavitt Jr., who served as Trumbull County treasurer; Humphrey Howe Leavitt, the son of pioneer Capt. John Leavitt and an early United States Congressman and United States District Court judge; and Daniel Leavitt, the first public school teacher in Warren. John Leavitt, the original family settler, acted as captain of the local militia, from which he derived his title.

Like most pioneers, the Leavitt family had to provide the initial services in the region. John Leavitt Jr. founded the first public school. Capt. John Leavitt's first public house and tavern became the nucleus of Warren's growing community, serving as temporary headquarters for the region's first military officials. The first race track in the area was built on the Leavitt farm, sporting a large grandstand for spectators. (A later canal built through the farm destroyed the site, and the first race track decayed.)

Eventually, members of the extended Leavitt family in Suffield followed, including Enoch Leavitt (born in 1746, and known as 'Esquire Enoch'), who purchased the land on which most of the town of Warren now stands. Enoch died in 1815 and, like most of the Leavitt family, was buried in the family cemetery at Leavittsburg, largely a wooded area devoid of settlement. Enoch's son, Enoch Jr. became a well-known local physician who resided on his farm at Leavittsburg and by the time of his death in 1827 at age 52 had accumulated roughly 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of land in Trumbull County.

Leavittsburg, the town named for the early Ohio family, had a gristmill for many years, but largely escaped development. Today it is still rural, and the site of the Leavitt family cemetery, where many members of the family are buried. The first Leavitt settler in Ohio, Capt. John Leavitt, died at Warren in 1815.