Joseph Leavitt

Private Joseph Leavitt (1757–1839) was an early settler of Maine, who moved to what was then the frontier of Massachusetts after serving three months in the Continental Army at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, and then declaring that he was unable to bear arms in conflict. The conscientious objector declared that he would move to Maine and survey lands for grants to former soldiers. On account of his pacifist sentiments, 'Quaker Joe,' as he became known for the rest of his life, was awarded with a house lot next to the new Turner meetinghouse when it was eventually built.

Joseph Leavitt was born in 1757 in Pembroke, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, the son of Jacob Leavitt and his wife Sylvia (Bonney) Leavitt. The family originated at Hingham, some 17 miles away, in the seventeenth century when English settler deacon John Leavitt removed there from Boston. Joseph Leavitt, great-great-grandson of patriarch John, was the son of a modest farmer in Pembroke.

At the outbreak of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War in 1775, Joseph Leavitt enlisted as Private in the Continental Army for an initial three-month period of service. Leavitt was involved in some of the earliest skirmishes of the War, when he helped fight British forces during the Siege of Boston in 1775. At the conclusion of his service in the earliest phase of the Revolutionary War, Leavitt declared himself unable to fight any longer. "Some must stay at home and raise bread," Leavitt was recorded as saying. While others did the fighting, Leavitt said he would instead "raise bread for them."

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