Sacramento County
Biographies
CAPTAIN EDWARD JEWELL LEAVITT
CAPTAIN EDWARD JEWELL LEAVITT.--A public-spirited man, who is one of the oldest captains and pursers on the Sacramento River, is Capt. Edward Jewell Leavitt, who was born on February 18, 1858, at Fond du Lac, Wis., the son of Nathan and Mary (Jewell) Leavitt, born near Waterville, Maine. Mrs. Leavitt passed away when her son Edward was a babe of a few weeks. Mr. Nathan Leavitt, a Civil War Veteran, served as captain of the 21st Wisconsin Volunteers, and came to California in 1875. Then he went to Texas as a prominent Republican. He was a great friend of Cecil Lyon, and was a member of the state Republican committee in Texas. He owned a large acreage of land, and passed away at the age of eighty-six on his ranch near Stanford. He was an esteemed member of the G.A.R.
Edward J. Leavitt was educated in the public schools of Wisconsin. He attended business college at Oshkosh, Wis.; and after his graduation, when he was seventeen years old, he came to California with his father, who bought a large ranch near Susanville, Lassen County. For a year and a half he was employed with the Lassen County Flume & Lumber Company, being in charge of a sawmill. He went to Red Bluff on horseback and was employed from 1876 to 1877 on Dr. Glenn's 55,000 acre wheat ranch, the largest wheat ranch in the world. For two years he farmed in Ventura County. In 1879 he was employed as a purser on a steamboat, and then was occupied as a bookkeeper for a business house at Princeton. He leased a flour mill which he ran for three years. He then built a flour mill in Willows and ran it until he sold out. At this time he was employed a second time on Dr. Glenn's ranch. On July 14, 1887, he became purser on the steamboat "Verona." One year later he was appointed captain of the United States snag-boat "Seizer." One year later he returned to enter the service of the Sacramento Transportation Company, and he has been with them ever since, except for one year when he was captain of the "Neponset." He has of late been pilot or purser, and his business experience makes him a very valuable man to the company. For the past thirty-six years he has been employed by this one company, thus proving his stability and efficiency.
At Princeton, on February 18, 1882, Captain Leavitt was united in marriage to Mary C. Scott, who was born in that vicinity. Her father, one of the early pioneers of California, was a justice of the peace and a business man of Princeton. They are the parents of four children: Zoe, now Mrs. M. Hurley, of Roseville; Winnie, wife of Capt. Alex. Johnston, of the boat "Feather Queen;" Teddy, an agent at Loomis, with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company; and Vivian, the wife of Harry Wells, the assistant manager of the Hippodrome, at Sacramento. Captain and Mrs. Leavitt have nine grandchildren. Captain Leavitt is very fond of literature and outdoor life, and is actively interested in community progress and uplift.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 818. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.