Thaddeus Leavitt

Thaddeus Leavitt (1750–1826) was a Suffield, Connecticut, merchant who invented an improved upon version of the cotton gin, as well as joining with seven other Connecticut men to purchase most of the three-million-plus acres of the Western Reserve lands in Ohio from the government of Connecticut, land on which some of his family eventually settled, founding Leavittsburg, Ohio, and settling in Trumbull County, Ohio. Leavitt served on a commission in the early nineteenth century to settle boundary disputes between Massachusetts and Connecticut, was a director of one of Connecticut's first banks, and was a shipowner whose vessels traded throughout the Atlantic. Leavitt also kept a journal in which he noted everything from the weather to 'cures' for various ailments to the adoption of the United States Constitution.

Thaddeus Leavitt, Esq. was born September 9, 1750 in Suffield to farmer and carpenter John Leavitt and his wife Abiah Kent. Thaddeus Leavitt married Elizabeth King, daughter of Ensign William King of Suffield and his wife Lucy Hatheway. A piece of French furniture was emblazoned with a brass plaque to commemorate the couple's marriage, and given to them, probably by Leavitt's new King in-laws.

Leavitt became an early Suffield merchant, selectman and Justice of the Peace, and was known as 'Squire Leavitt.' He ran a store in Suffield, and from an early age began investing in the shipping business. Leavitt was one of Hartford County's leading citizens, and became wealthy in his dealings as a merchant and shipowner. His ships traded as far afield as the West Indies and other farflung destinations, and the entrepreneurial Leavitt acted as both importer and exporter. Thanks to his increasing wealth, Leavitt built the home later known in Suffield as the Harmon House on High Street.

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