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86:, on March 6, 1817 in Vermont. Shortly after their marriage, the couple departed for Hatley, only 15 miles (24 km) from the Canada–Vermont border, where farmer Jeremiah Leavitt was attracted by the rich soil and plentiful timber. At the time of his immigration to Canada, the area around Hatley was fresh from control of
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Jeremiah
Leavitt had never been a polygamist, but his sons followed the subsequent dictum that church members should take multiple wives. Thomas Rowell Leavitt had 26 children with his three wives. Shortly after Card's departure from Utah, former lawman Leavitt followed suit. In early spring 1887
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In
September 1835, the extended Leavitt family came face-to-face with the man who had converted them long distance: Joseph Smith. No diary exists to describe what they made of their leader, but shortly afterwards the family departed with other recent converts to Smith's religion for
216:. After an arduous six-week, 800-mile (1,300 km) trek, Leavitt's party reached Lee Creek, Alberta, on May 25, 1887. Leavitt had traveled with his wife Harriet Martha Dowdle and several children by all three wives. He left wife Ann Eliza Jenkins behind on his Wellsville ranch.
117:, the next jumping-off point on the Mormons' westward journey. Along the way, Jeremiah Leavitt's elderly mother, Sarah (Shannon) Leavitt, died of exposure. Having arrived in Nauvoo, the Leavitts bought a farm seven miles (11 km) outside town, where they began planting wheat.
97:. Thomas Rowell Leavitt was 16 months old when his parents pulled up stakes to follow Franklin Chamberlain, a Mormon convert who had married Lydia, the oldest child in the Leavitt family. The family returned to the United States, having been converted by Mormon
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Tullidge's
Histories, Vol. II, Containing the History of All the Northern, Eastern and Western Counties of Utah, Edward W. Tullidge, The Press of the Juvenile Instructor, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1889
136:'s move to expel the settlers from its territory. In 1846, the Leavitt family set out as part of Young's trek, with father Jeremiah dying along the way. Ultimately the family got as far as
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at Trade Point, where they remained three years. By 1850, the worn-out
Leavitt family departed for Utah Territory, where they were told that a successful settlement had been made.
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Some Mormon historians have asserted that only three men were known to have brought more than one wife to Canada: John Lye Gibb, Thomas Rowell
Leavitt and Franklin Dewey Leavitt.
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By 1897, the rest of the family had followed, including
Leavitt's son Alfred, who subsequently helped dig, with his brother, the irrigation canals that
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Conquerors of the West: Stalwart Mormon
Pioneers, Vol. II, Florence C. Youngberg, National Society, Sons of Utah Pioneers, Agreka Books, 1998
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Native
American tribes. Leavitt cleared his new acreage, on which he built a log cabin, and began raising an eventual family of 10 children.
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Leavitt lived out his days in the tiny hamlet he founded in
Alberta, known as Buffalo Flats on his arrival, and subsequently christened
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had promised the
Canadian government in exchange for more land grants to fellow Mormons hard-pressed by the U.S. government crackdown.
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132:, who shortly afterwards announced his intention to found a Mormon sanctuary safe from persecution. Young's decision was prompted by
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migration westward. On June 1, 1850, a group of Latter-day Saints in 51 wagons, including the Leavitt family, crossed the
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came to an end. The government began cracking down, arresting polygamists. Some hid, others crossed the border into
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named Leavitt, many of whom remain in the region today, ranching and living in the bucolic area in the shadow of
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In subsequent years, Jeremiah Leavitt and his wife Sarah joined the Latter-day Saints (Mormons) led by
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Leavitt left Wellsville with other Mormon polygamists in a large wagon train—the last recorded in the
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Anti-Mormon sentiment reached a crescendo shortly afterwards, and in 1844 rioters set upon Smith,
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that sent fellow members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the border to
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who swept across eastern Canada on orders of Smith. The Leavitt family remained only briefly in
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Sarah Sturdevant Leavitt, 1798-1878, History of Sarah Sturdevant Leavitt, Juanita L. Pulsipher
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Once Upon a Wedding: Stories of Weddings in Western Canada, Nancy Millar, Bayeux Arts, 2000
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sheriff and marshal founded at age 53 after an arduous 800-mile (1,300 km) journey in
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Canadian leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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But by the 1880s, the United States government's toleration of the
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Mormon wagon train re-enactment, similar to that led by Tom Leavitt
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Emigrants from pre-Confederation Quebec to the United States
256:"Children of Jeremiah Leavitt II & Sarah Sturtevant"
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The Life of Thomas Rowell Leavitt and His Descendants
30:(June 30, 1834 – May 21, 1891) was a member of
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152:The year 1850 was the highpoint of the
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199:, who traveled to modern-day
84:Grafton County, New Hampshire
34:and the founding settler of
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412:People from Cardston County
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154:California Gold Rush
138:Council Bluffs, Iowa
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347:2008-12-07 at the
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103:New England
371:Categories
266:2009-12-16
242:References
174:Wellsville
66:Early life
345:Archived
214:Old West
189:polygamy
148:Westward
134:Illinois
88:Iroquois
52:polygamy
122:killing
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193:Mexico
185:Mormon
158:Mormon
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126:Hyrum
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