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Harvey Freegrace Leavitt


Gender:
Male
Born:
December 1796
Died:
November 11, 1874
Home Town:
Hartford, VT
Later Residences:
Saratoga Springs, NY
Stratford, VT
Vergennes, VT
Grinell, IA
Marriage(s):
Minerva Shipherd Leavitt (February 6, 1821)
Nancy Miner Leavitt (August 12, 1845)
Elizabeth Chatterton Leavitt (1873)
Biographical Notes:
Harvey Freegrace Leavitt was the only son of Freegrace and Jerusha (Loomis) Leavitt of Suffield, CT. Leavitt planned to be a minister but abandoned this idea for a time to study the law, first in Litchfield and later in the office of Shiphers & Parker in Grinville, NY. He and his first wife, Minerva had one son and one daughter. Leavitt worked as a lawyer in Saratoga Springs, NY before moving his family to his hometown of Hartford, VT where he practiced law for about ten years.

Leavitt, however, soon tired of legal practice and returned to his first calling, the ministry. He was ordained in 1830 and had churches in Stratford and Vergennes, VT. From 1839 to 1874, he acted as a Member of the Corporation of Middlebury College, as well as a Fellow of the College. After the death of his ...
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Education
Years at LLS:
1816-1817
Other Education:
Studied first at the Royalton Academy and then at Moor's Chartiy School in Hanover, NH. In 1812, he entered Dartmouth College for three years but spent his senior year at Yale College, from which he graduated in 1816.

Profession / Service
Profession:
Lawyer; Religious Calling
Admitted To Bar:
Albany, NY in January 1820
Training with Other Lawyers:
He studied with Mr.'s Shipers and Parker of Granville, NY before being admitted to the bar.

Related Objects and Documents
Other:
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Handwritten list by William Samuel Johnson, "Catalogue of the Students at Law in the school at Litchfield Conn. at & after Aug. 15th 1817..", Connecticut Historical Society, Johnson Family Papers, 1722-1863, Box - Johnson Papers.

Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School, Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.

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