Thomas Rowell Leavitt
Thomas Rowell "Tom" Leavitt (June 30, 1834 – May 21, 1891) was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the founding settler of Leavitt, Alberta, Canada, which the former Utah sheriff and marshal founded at age 53 after an arduous journey in covered wagons, fleeing a crackdown on polygamy that sent fellow members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across the border to Mexico and Canada. Early life Leavitt was born at Hatley, Lower Canada, on June 30, 1834, the son of Jeremiah Leavitt and his wife Sarah Sturdevant Leavitt. Jeremiah Leavitt had been born at Grantham, New Hampshire, in 1797, and married Sarah Sturdevant of Grafton County, New Hampshire, on March 6, 1817 in Vermont. Shortly after their marriage, the couple departed for Hatley, only 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 Iroquois Native American tribes. Leavitt cleared his new acreage, on which he built a log cabin, and began raising an eventual family of 10 children. In subsequent years, Jeremiah Leavitt and his