How Leavitt Road Got Its Name – Revisited

Leavitt Road has been a recurring topic on this blog over the years, with several posts pertaining to the highway's widening and repaving in the mid-1960s. 

And back on this post, there was an interesting discussion as to how the road got its name. I had seen it repeatedly referred to in the Journal as 'the Leavitt Road' since as early as the 1920s. But as regular blog contributor and author Don Hilton observed, it had been used even earlier than that, in the late 1800s, to describe property boundaries in real estate sales.  

Since there didn't appear to be any Leavitt farm on any of the vintage plat maps, the only possible theory was that the name referred to Col. John Leavitt, an early settler of Ohio's Western Reserve.

Longtime blog contributor and historian Rick Kurish had done research with findings that make a pretty strong argument to support the idea that the road is named for that family.

Rick wrote, "I read with interest your blog post regarding Leavitt Road. Since I was a youngster growing up in Amherst I have wondered about how the Leavitt Road came to be named. Like you I searched for someone with the surname Leavitt living on the road — without success. Then about 30 years ago I ran across a book published by the Western Reserve Historical society titled A Tour to New Connecticut in 1811: The Narrative of Henry Leavitt Ellsworth.

"After reading the narrative, I arrived at the same tenuous conclusion as Dan Hilton posted in his comment on your blog, namely that John Leavitt, an early settler of Warren Ohio, was probably involved somehow. The research that I did many years ago led me to a couple of prominent extended families living in Suffield, Connecticut in the 1790s. Their surnames were Leavitt and Ellsworth. When Connecticut put the Western Reserve lands up for sale in 1796, the very wealthy and accomplished Leavitt and Ellsworth families, among others, purchased tens of thousands of acres. John Leavitt purchased land in the Warren, Ohio area, and Oliver Ellsworth purchased land further west.

"John Leavitt became one of the early settlers of the Warren area. One of his business interests was opening a hotel in Warren. Oliver Ellsworth seemed to be more of a speculator. As far as I know, he never set foot in Ohio and died in 1807. In 1811 his son Henry Leavitt Ellsworth set out to inspect the family’s lands with an eye toward their development. 

"So, you ask, how may this be related to Leavitt Road?

"First, a little genealogy. The Leavitt and Ellsworth families were related by marriage. Henry Leavitt Ellsworth’s grandparents were David Ellsworth and Jemima Leavitt, hence his middle name. 

"In his narrative, he also describes stops at his cousin John Leavitt’s hotel in Warren and at his family’s land in Sullivan and Nova. Since Route 58 (Leavitt Road) originates/terminates in the Sullivan/Nova area, it may be significant that the land had a Leavitt connection.

"Is any of this proof of how Leavitt road came to be named? 

"It’s all just speculation on my part, but I’ll keep it under consideration until a better explanation comes along.

"I am enclosing a couple of scans from the Henry Leavitt Narrative that show the lands owned by the Ellsworth family in 1811. The map of the Western Reserve shows the route covered by Henry Leavitt Ellsworth during his tour.

"The second scan details the lands by acreage owned by his father Oliver Ellsworth at the time of his death. 

"As you can see he owned 15,829 acres in Range 18, which would later become the Sullivan area and 2,800 acres in Range 19 which is now the Nova area (see note 27).

"It would appear that the genesis of Leavitt road may have been in the Sullivan area or the Western Reserve. Who knew?"

I sincerely appreciate Rick's hard work in researching this. He has me convinced. Besides, we have a sign from above that he's correct. Check out the page number on the page from the book with the map: 58. Most appropriate for Leavitt Road – State Route 58!