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143:, one of San Francisco's most beloved figures (commemorated in a large statue in Golden Gate Park) had served as the First Church's minister during the Civil War. Rev. Leavitt was named to the post on the church's fiftieth anniversary in 1900, and he held the pastorate for 13 eventful years. From the beginning, Rev. Leavitt sent a message of change. "The struggles of the coming century will be largely social," the pastor wrote on his acceptance of his new West Coast ministry. "Personal salvation will give way to social salvation.â
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Leavitt later helped expose. The city's mayor was convicted in the investigation that followed, and the entire Board of
Supervisors resigned in the wake of the scandal. "We have dreamed we were living under the government of laws," Leavitt wrote following the attempted assassination of Assistant San Francisco District Attorney Heney, who was investigating corruption Leavitt helped uncover, "whereas we were living under the government of newspapers hired by corrupt corporations, and the enemies of civic decency."
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graduates. "First, those that never think, but follow some routine because of birth, inheritance, associations, environment and convenience. Second, those who think they think, but are, of necessity, very superficial. And the third class which, (I) am sorry to say, is the smallest numerically, the real thinkers."
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During the same period, Leavitt continued speaking out on issues of the day. He spoke to a teachers' associations, telling them the new century's most profound event was the study of evolution. "The ministerial world now recognizes the latter (evolution)," Leavitt told the assembled history teachers,
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The San
Francisco earthquake, Leavitt wrote his Harvard classmates, was the watershed event of his life: "I have been through the earthquake and fire and taken my part in the rehabilitation work, and now feel a bit the worse for wear, but wouldn't have missed it for an ordinary year or two of life."
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In the years following the earthquake, Leavitt became involved in a wide variety of charities, including the San
Francisco Foundling Asylum, the San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds, and San Francisco Polytechnic. The Unitarian minister sat on the committee overseeing the city's hospitals, was a
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As a minister, Leavitt had little truck with dogma: he might have been called an ecclesiastical existentialist. "If
Christianity is not creed but character", Leavitt told his barber, "not a theory but a life, then it would seem that those who follow the teachings of Christ, with a theory or without
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Near the end of his life, the former minister turned undertaking entrepreneur, helping run the business of undertakers N. Gray & Co., where he became vice president of the mortuary's South San
Francisco and Burlingame operations – a job change that engendered considerable controversy. But
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In 1903, Leavitt took the podium to address the convention of the
California State Suffrage Association at Golden Gate Hall. By early 1906 Leavitt felt so confident of his mission that he wrote glowingly of the church's reinvigorated finances and activist social program. "Never in the history of
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In the years following the San
Francisco earthquake, Rev. Leavitt worked with the city's mayor and civil service on relief work. But, ironically, Leavitt later turned against the Mayor and his lieutenants after his discovery of corruption at the highest levels of San Francisco's City Hall, which
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hit the city, setting buildings alight, killing scores, devastating
Leavitt's ministry, and despoiling his church. The tremors shook the church's bell from its tower, sending it careening through the roof, interrupting worship services for a considerable period. The earthquake also destroyed the
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Leavitt's views were best summarized in an address he gave to the graduating class of the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of San Francisco on May 19, 1904, at the Alhambra Theater on the cusp of the quake that decimated the city. "People might be divided into three classes," Leavitt told the
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Leavitt left the ministry for business in 1913 and became a successful San
Francisco merchant, living at 2511 Octavia Street and at his ranch in Woodside, California, on the peninsula south of the city. After leaving the ministry, Leavitt worked for the firm of A.E.S. Thompson & Co. in the
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Leavitt's tenure at All Souls' began auspiciously. Nearly 1,000 worshippers regularly filled the church for two Sunday services, and the church found itself compelled to rent additional pews for the overflow. Word of Leavitt's intellectual ministry and powerful speaking style spread.
163:. (Leavitt subsequently served as a special preacher at the university, delivering the sermon on alternate Sundays during the academic year, and he gave several baccalaureate sermons at Stanford graduation services during his tenure at First Unitarian Church).
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homes of many communicants, as well as driving others from the devastated city. During the following years, Leavitt's pastoral presence was evident across the devastated Bay Area. In 1907, Leavitt was named one of the University preachers at the
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Leavitt served as a secretary for the Fadgl Flexible System, not related to Fageol Motors, an early manufacturer of buses and trucks and tractors. In his work with R.B. Fageol, Leavitt was associated with the Standard Oil Company of
102:, then known as All Souls' Church, in Washington, D.C., where he served three years. The church had been the worship place of several Presidents, and Leavitt's appointment was watched closely. In 1899 Leavitt delivered a eulogy to
49:. Later the activist Leavitt exposed corruption in San Francisco's government, resulting in the Mayor's conviction on corruption charges, as well as the resignation of the city's entire Board of Supervisors.
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88:. "Youthful, brilliant, with a mind trained by keen scientific observation, his message could not have failed to capture the attention of his hearers," wrote Mary Rogers Cabot in her
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Leavitt was accustomed to controversy: in his career as a businessman, he had worked with inventor R.B. Fageol to create one of America's earliest automotive companies, founded in
43:. Leavitt served the church during and after the disaster, earning a reputation for effective leadership. During his time at First Unitarian, Leavitt also wrote editorials for
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as an officer in the 70th U.S. Colored Infantry as well as the 12th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, during which command he saw many engagements across the Deep South.
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The Social Studies, American Historical Association, National Board for Historical Service, National Council for the Social Sciences, McKinley Publishing Co., 1911
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As a result of his close work with Stanford University, Rev. Leavitt and Mrs. Leland Stanford became good friends, and he is mentioned frequently in her memoirs.
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A Sketch of the Life of John M. Todd (Sixty-two Years in a Barber Shop) and Reminiscences of His Customers, John M. Todd, William W. Roberts Co., Portland, 1906
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Leavitt served in Brattleboro until 1897, during which time he delivered sermons with titles like "Some Things which Astronomy Teaches about the Universe".
195:"and can now see evolution in the parable of the seed and its growth and in the work of Saint Paul." (Leavitt's speech on the subject preceded the famous
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Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Justin S. Morrill (late a Senator from Vermont), Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1899
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Records of Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C., Vol. 13, Columbia Historical Society, Published by the Society, Washington, 1913
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that demonstrated his lean speaking style, beginning with a simple sentence: "In moments of deepest emotion we are instinctively silent."
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The progressive Leavitt remained loyal to his alma mater, serving with the Harvard Club of San Francisco. He was also a member of the
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member of the Council of Associated Charities, and served on the advisory committee of the Independent League of Republican Clubs.
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The System, As Uncovered at the San Francisco Graft Prosecution, Franklin Hichborn, James H. Barry Company, San Francisco, 1915
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History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. VI, National American Woman Suffrage Association, J.J. Little & Ives Company, N.Y., 1922
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The Town of Hingham in the Late Civil War, Fearing Burr, George Lincoln, Published by Order of the Town, Hingham, 1876
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Annual Register, Leland Stanford Junior University Palo Alto, Stanford University, Published by the University, 1908
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Secretary's Report, Harvard College Class of 1890, Harvard College, Printed for the Use of the Class, Boston, 1909
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The Unitarian, Vol. XII, Jabez Thomas Sunderland, Brooke Herford, Frederick B. Mott, George H. Ellis, Boston, 1897
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Seventh Report, Harvard College Class of 1890, Seventh Report, 1920, The Rumford Press, Concord, N.H., 1921
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Annals of Brattleboro, 1681-1895, Vol. I, Mary Rogers Cabot, E.L. Hildreth & Co., Brattleboro, 1921
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92:. Among Rev. Leavitt's earliest moves in his new ministry was helping found the Women's Alliance.
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Rev. E. Bradford Leavitt, History of All Souls Unitarian Church, Washington, D.C., all-souls.org
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this Coast has our situation been as promising as it is today," Leavitt wrote his parishioners.
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First Unitarian Universalist Church, San Francisco, Rev. Bradford Leavitt named pastor in 1900
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Caroline Wells Healey Dall Papers, 1811–1917, The Massachusetts Historical Society
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In 1897, Leavitt stepped down from his Brattleboro ministry when he was named pastor of
31:(June 4, 1868 â October 21, 1959) was an American minister. He was a Harvard-educated
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in 1893, after which he was invited to become minister of the Unitarian Church in
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Rev. Bradford Leavitt, History of San Mateo County, Philip W. Alexander, 1916
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Vermont Public Documents 1893–1894, The Tuttle Company, Rutland, 1894
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Pacific Medical Journal, Vol. XLVII, January-December 1904, Published 1904
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in 1890 with a degree in English composition and philosophy, and from
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331:"Our History, First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco"
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Leavitt eventually lived fulltime at his 'Shine Ranch' in Woodside.
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Three months later everything changed. On April 18, 1906, the
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In 1900, Leavitt was named minister of San Francisco's
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Letter from Rev. Bradford Leavitt to conservationist
559:Religious leaders from the San Francisco Bay Area
239:on May 9, 1892. They had one daughter, Helen.
220:commission business at 24 California Street.
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247:one, are entitled to be called Christians."
159:at the Leland Stanford Junior University in
544:Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area
35:minister named pastor of San Francisco's
534:1906 San Francisco earthquake survivors
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90:Annals of Brattleboro, 1681–1895
39:in 1900 – six years before the
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554:Businesspeople from Massachusetts
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23:Rev. Bradford Leavitt, ca. 1896
529:Harvard Divinity School alumni
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130:1906 San Francisco earthquake
57:Leavitt was born in 1868 in
46:The San Francisco Chronicle
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539:American Unitarian clergy
59:Dorchester, Massachusetts
199:by more than a decade.)
152:San Francisco earthquake
72:Bradford graduated from
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78:Harvard Divinity School
524:Harvard College alumni
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137:First Unitarian Church
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120:San Francisco ministry
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86:Concord, Massachusetts
63:Hingham, Massachusetts
37:First Unitarian Church
29:Edwin Bradford Leavitt
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82:Brattleboro, Vermont
549:Writers from Boston
226:Oakland, California
197:Scopes Monkey Trial
184:Ralph Waldo Emerson
492:2013-11-26 at the
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67:American Civil War
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233:Commonwealth Club
141:Thomas Starr King
110:Justin S. Morrill
16:American minister
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503:Categories
341:2008-11-26
251:References
180:centennial
176:John Muir
161:Palo Alto
33:Unitarian
490:Archived
107:Senator
104:Vermont
237:Boston
27:Rev.
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