LEMUEL STUDEVANT LEAVITT
Lemuel S. Leavitt, Mormon pioneer and colonizer, was born in Compton County, Quebec, Canada, November 3, 1827. He was the son of Jeremiah Leavitt and Sarah Studevant, direct descendants of the pilgrims.
The traits of their pilgrim forefathers were inherent in their souls, for this family, upon accepting the gospel of Christ, was one of the first to leave their beloved native soil, and kindred folk, to join the Saints in Illinois.
That force which drove the Pilgrim fathers to seek new homes in strange lands, now became the driving force of these brave Saints. There was nothing that could hinder this man and woman in their quest for what they believed to be "The Good Life."
Sickness, sacrifice, sorrow, or pain could not discourage them for they were willing and determined to find a place where they could worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their conscience.
Thus we find at the age of eight, Lemuel accompanying his parents to Illinois. From the first their lot was hard. Their money was gone before they reached their destination, but the father found work in Kirtland and was able to earn a fairly good living. Before long they were able to buy a place three miles from Nauvoo. It was while the family was here that Lemuel became a close friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Through his association with the prophet, his faith in the principles of the Gospel became strengthened and he obtained an undying testimony of its truthfulness. To the end of his days Lemuel had a profound love and deep respect for the great Prophet.
They soon found that it was impossible to stay in one place very long. The Saints were being persecuted continuously, and this family was soon forced to leave their beautiful new farm and go to Mt. Pisgah. They moved in April, and at this time of year their provisions were very low, so it was decided that the father and Lemuel's younger brother should make a trip back to Bonaparte for provisions. This was the last time the mother and children ever saw the father, for while he was gone he took the chills and fever and died. This left Lemuel to provide for his mother and five other children.
In the fall they were again forced to move. This time it was to the Bluffs in Iowa. The journey was long and hard and almost more than the mother could stand, for she became critically ill. Up until this time she had walked along the side of the wagon; for only very small children and people who were physically unable to walk ever rode; but now she was placed in the wagon to continue on the long journey. It was only through her sincere faith in God that her prayers and those of her family and friends were answered and she recovered.
It was late fall when they arrived at Trade Point and here Lemuel left his mother with five children to spend the winter while he continued west to the valleys of the mountains to prepare for the coming of the father the next year.
He worked for months on a surveying project and when his mother and the rest of the family arrived the following October, 1850, he had a log cabin to shelter them and a small vegetable garden, and a fat beef to help furnish their winter's supply of food.
It was at this time he became acquainted with and later married one of the beautiful pioneer maidens, Laura Melvina Thompson, and they, with several others moved to Tooele. He did very well here and soon had a two-story adobe home. He was a very intellectual and industrious young man, two traits that are essential in a colonizer, and from childhood he had been taught the principles of truth and honor. He was born a leader and diplomat, cheerful, honest, and sympathetic. These traits were early recognized by Brigham Young and therefore he was chosen by the President to open some of the most difficult missions in the new land.
He had only been in Tooele a few years, when he was called during the year 1856 to go with Peter Maughan to explore and help settle Cache Valley.
Little is known of his work there but before long he received another call from President Young to go to Dixie on an Indian Mission. He was to teach the natives how to cultivate the soil and raise crops. Again he left with his family to go into a strange territory to live and raise his children among the natives. There was no road to travel, merely a broken path. Traveling was extremely slow and difficult. Many times he became discouraged and probably would have turned back but his mission lay before him and not behind. This was what President Young meant when he informed Lemuel that he would released from his mission in forty years or more.
In October 1862, a great tragedy befell the family. The mother died and left eight children under twelve years of age. While the father and children were suffering from their overwhelming grief one of the baby twin girls died.
Their anguish can hardly be described. For here they were, among hostile Indians, isolated by trackless rugged wasteland, hundreds of miles from help and comforting friends. Within the year Lemuel was asked to go East, and accompany some emigrants to Zion. This call he accepted as he had always don, unfalteringly.
Among the emigrants was a Danish girl named Betsy Amelia Martinson, whom Lemuel asked to marry. There were very happy together and she was a devoted mother to his children and they loved her, but this happiness wasn't to last, for on August 4, 1867, she died, leaving a small girl of her own to the twice orphaned children to care for.
The children were too young to take care of themselves, and Lemuel couldn't remain at home to take care of them for it took all his time caring for the crops that meant food for them.
There was no help one could hire, and probably if there had been some one, there wouldn't have been money enough to pay for the help. The obvious thing to do was to find someone who would marry him and accept the responsibility of caring for his large family, but this wasn't an easy thing to do. There were no eligible women. The girls usually married an an early age and had families of their own.
There was an English lady, Mary Craig, whose husband had died and left her five children to care for, so she and Lemuel were married. This made a good-sized family, but they were all better cared for.
By this time there were quite a number who had settled here at the mission on the Santa Clara River. Their crops were never bountiful and each winter there was a scarcity of food.
The following story was told by Lemuel concerning one of their hard winters: "Our crops had been very poor. There was never enough water for each man to irrigate his scanty acres. We not only had our own families to fee but often Indians came and demanded bread.
"One winter was particularly hard. Our crops were more meager than usual and the winter was extra long and severe.
"Our bins, as well as those of most of our neighbors, were getting pretty low so it was decided I should make a trip to Parowan to replenish our supply of flour. At this time this was a hazardous undertaking, for in winter a trip over the snow-covered mountains to the north with no roads to follow was a real undertaking; however, it was necessary that someone make the trip.
"I suffered intensely from cold, yes, and even hunger, but I finally made the trip and returned with 500 pounds of flour.
"Within twelve hours most of the neighbors had come to borrow just a few mixings. We tried to distribute it and make it go as far as we could until we were left with only fifty pounds.
"I could see that unless another trip was made soon the entire colony would be faced with starvation so the very next morning I set out again. This time I had to go to Beaver which is forty miles further north than Parowan. My brother-in-law owned the mill in Beaver.
"When I told him of our dire needs he gave me twice the amount I could pay for, saying he had plenty. He insisted that I take the flour adding, <I can't let my baby sister's children go hungry.= I think he would have done the same for anyone.
"On my return trip I had the misfortune of getting both of my feet frozen, but the Saints in Santa Clara were kept from starvation."
During these hard times his wife died. He cared for the family for ahile, then he married another English widow named Mary Ann Morgan who had two sons of her own.
In 1877 Brigham Young again called him to help make a settlement at Bunkerville, Nevada, and again he responded. By this time he had his family well-established in Santa Clara, so he married another English widow named Rebecca Gibbons Waite who had six children and he took them to Bunkerville to live.
He made regular trips from Santa Clara to Bunkerville to see that both families were well provided for.
In 1889 Mrs. Waite died. The children that weren't married went to live with the other family in Santa Clara.
It is said by everyone that knew them that Lemuel never in any way showed any favoritism to any of the children. He loved them all alike, and they in turn loved and respected him.
He was truly a man of noble character. He was honest, truthful, humble, and prayerful - always a man of great faith. He had the gift of healing and also the gift of talking in tongues. He never had an enemy.
At one time he said, "I don't know much about the telephone but I always try to live so that I will be in tune with my Father in Heaven."
Lemuel passed quietly away October 13, 1916, at Santa Clara, Utah at the age of eighty-nine years, eleven months, and thirteen days. He left a posterity of fourteen children, seventy-six grandchildren and fifty-six great-grandchildren.
The following poem was written by Lemuel Leavitt at the age of seventy-five:
A Life's Mission
In 46 I took the Prophet's trail
And followed it up to the mountains vale;
I found the Prophet; he had made his stand
He said, Yes, This is the promised land.
The country looked very dry and forlorn;
His word or his wisdom never tired
For our Father in Heaven had been his guide.
I watered the earth without the rain
I plowed it up and put in my grain
I tended it and watched with an anxious eye
For I depended on it whether I should live or die.
It cam up and grew very bold
And yeilded to me full forty fold.
In 50 my widowed mother, brothers, sisters five
Gathered up to the Bee Hive
I had bread and vegetables laid up in store
To keep the famine from the door.
When my mother came, I took in the family another one which was most dear,
She was a daughter of Ezra Thompson, pioneer.
In 56 I was called with Peter Maughan and others four
Cache Valley to explore
We found a place and made a stand
Where people could gather from other lands
I got out my house, logs, and cut my hay;
Put in some grain, then was called another way.
I took my wife and children four,
With old buck and Bery to haul my store,
And with two cows to give us milk,
I traveled to the land of cotton and silk,
Over the rim of a basin on the Pacific side
On the Santa Clara there to abide.
There I commenced my toil
To teach the Indians to cultivate the soil
Lay away his bows and arrows, roaming and savage life,
To cultivate the earth and live a better life.
In a year or two I began to feel kinder "blue"
And asked President Young when this mission would be through
He told me in forty five years or so,
I could have the privilege to stay or go.
In 63 I was called to assist to fix up a train
And drive an ox team down across the plain,
Over the mountain and rivers I strand,
And brought the saints to the Promised Land.
In 77 twas Prophets will
To make a settlement at Bunkerville,
Forty years of my mission have past,
And I'm living on the last,
My Father in Heaven if 'tis His will
I'll continue on and my mission fill.
I've raised fatherless children ten,
They have all grown up to be women and men,
Not one will say I misused or led them astray
Not one from my home or the church have flown,
But have all settled around with ten of my own.
I'm three score years and ten,
I've laid up no money nor honors of men
It matters but little to me what people may think or say;
I've done the best I could in my own weak way.