Our forebears, Jeremiah II and Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt, had a large family.   During the 13 years it took to move from Hatley, Quebec, Canada to the Salt Lake Valley, several of their family members died, including their father, Jeremiah II.   Sarah, his wife, continued the journey with her family, and through much travail and sacrifice eventually settled and colonized the Santa Clara River area.

On September 5, 1998, a life size bronze statue of Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt was unveiled in an idyllic park on Main Street in Santa Clara, Utah.    The location is beautifully landscaped and lighted.   Interpretive plaques telling of her life and identifying each of her children and grandchildren are part of the monument.

On the day the statue (sculptured by L'Deane Trueblood of St. George) was unveiled, Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt would have been 200 years old.   A committee had worked for months making plans to celebrate this 200th Birthday.   It was a fitting time to honor this great grandmother of tens of thousands.   Sarah was a noble woman and a matriarch to more family than perhaps any other person in the LDS Church.   She suffered and sacrificed all she had, that we, her posterity, could enjoy life as we do today.

The monument's purpose is not only to honor Sarah Sturtevant Leavitt, but also to enable her posterity, now and in the future, to have a place where they can come and feel a sense of the connection that exists to each other, and also to the remarkable ancestry so well represented by Sarah.   Ours is a rich heritage.   It is hoped that we and our children will learn to love, honor, and cherish it.

To read a plaque shown above, click on

the corresponding image below to enlarge it.