The Leavitts were an American pioneering family whose line in America began in 1628 when John Leavitt settled at Hingham, Massachusetts. Through successive generations including Moses Leavitt in Exeter, New Hampshire, Joseph Leavitt in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and Nathaniel Leavitt on Leavitt Hill near Grantham, New Hampshire, the family worked in the timber trade and the men also served in the Colonial Wars, the French and Indian Wars, and the American Revolutionary War. In the late 1790s, Jeremiah Leavitt and Sarah Shannon, with seven small children, became early settlers of Hatley in the Province of Quebec, Canada, where they cleared forests and endured the hardships of frontier life, and after Jeremiah died in 1817 Sarah led the growing family. In 1835 missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passed through the neighborhood, and most of the family accepted the faith. In July 1837, 55 family members left their well-established homes and farms in Hatley to join the main body of the Church at Kirtland, Ohio. Hardship and sickness struck them across Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, and by the time the family reached the Salt Lake Valley, 22 had died, including Sarah Shannon Leavitt and many of her children, grandchildren, and in-laws. Those who survived became pioneer settlers across the Great American West. Among the family members remembered are John Leavitt, born July 27, 1792, in Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, son of Jeremiah and Sarah Shannon Leavitt, who married Lucy Rowell in 1822 and died in 1852 at Cambria, Michigan; their daughter Cinderilla Leavitt, born March 12, 1827, at Compton, Province of Quebec, Canada, who died in 1841 at Burton, Geauga, Ohio; Thomas J. Leavitt, born February 8, 1847, and died July 3, 1847, at Cambria, Hillsdale, Michigan; Horace Brown, born July 23, 1849, at Cambria, Hillsdale, Michigan, who died there in 1849; and Barney Alfred Brown, born in 1853 at Cambria, Hillsdale, Michigan, who died there in 1854.