LEAVITT, Caroline C. (Ware) 1836-1917

LEAVITT, WARE, CLARK, DAVISON, CASCADEN

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 9/10/2014 at 23:52:59

[Waterloo Evening Courier, Monday, February 19, 1917, Waterloo, Iowa]

MRS. J. H. LEAVITT PIONEER, PASSES

CHILDREN ARE AT BEDSIDE WHEN END COMES

Came to Waterloo in 1858 - Saw City's Upgrowth.

After an illness of less than two weeks, Mrs. John H. Leavitt died at 1:46 p. m. today at her home at 523 Park Avenue West. The cause of her death was a complication of heart trouble and pneumonia. Her children, Roger Leavitt, Cedar Falls, Joseph L. Leavitt, Los Angeles, Miss Lucy Leavitt, and Mrs. Grace Cascaden, Waterloo, and Mrs. Mary Davison, Colorado Springs, Colo., were at her bedside when the end came.

Mrs. Leavitt was born in Granville, Illinois, Oct. 11, 1836, and came to Waterloo directly after her marriage to Mr. Leavitt, Jan. 1, 1858, There her husband had been living since 1854.

Illinois was the frontier in her girlhood so she experienced frontier life both in Illinois and Iowa. She was born on a farm, could milk a cow or ride horseback on the wildest colt in the pasture. It is reported that she once drove a four-horse team hitched to a stage coach on a dead run to catch a train.

Not long after coming to Iowa she was in two runaways and in one of them she was badly injured, but her courage remained undaunted and the same energy was carried into later endeavors. She was educated at the ladies' seminary at Canandaigua, N. Y. where she met Mr. Leavitt. In 1858 Waterloo was a typical frontier village. They were young, well educated for the times, industrious, poor. It was a real democracy.

The first Sunday she was in Waterloo she taught a class in the Congregational Sunday school and continued to teach for over 50 years. This was possibly her greatest work outside of her home. Hundreds of young men and women came under the inspiring influence of her teaching and personality. For many years she was active in all departments of church work. For 25 years she was a member of the choir. She could be depended upon to raise the church debt, take charge of a church supper or plan and manage a Sunday school picnic.

In the latter sixties she was superintendent of the Sunday school for a year. In those days it was not thought proper for a woman to speak out loud in a church so the assistant superintendent - a man - presided on Sunday, but she did the planning. Due to her leadership the school doubled in numbers.

During the Civil war Mrs. Leavitl was active in the work of the soldiers' relief society and was vice president of the state organization. Following the war there was much suffering among the poor in Waterloo. For years she was president of the local relief corps and spent much time in that work.

In 1874, owing to the fact that the Waterloo high schools did not then prepare for college, she was prime mover in establishing the Cedar Valley institute. In 1874 she was a charter member of the Ladies' Literary Society and in 1891 she issued the call resulting in the organization of the Fortnightly club. Notwithstanding, all of her public work, she never neglected her family. Her children say she was always home when school was out. In the day of her strength she would do the family washing before breakfast or take up a carpet, clean the room and tack the carpet down before breakfast.

With a large family and scarcely a day without an unexpected guest, her home duties were heavy. Since the death of Mr. Leavitt 10 years ago she had spent her winters in Pasadena, Cal. and her summers in her home on West Park Avenue, Waterloo.

------------------------------
Burial at Elmwood Cemetery, Waterloo. Gravestone inscribed Caroline C. Leavitt 1836-1917

The following research credit to Chuck S.:
Parents: Ralph Ware 1804 - 1863 and Lucinda Clark Ware 1808 - 1897

Spouse: John Hooker Leavitt 1831 - 1906

Children:
Mary L. Leavitt Davison 1858 - 1931
Roger Leavitt 1860 - 1949
Lucy O. Leavitt 1863 - 1953
Joseph Lyman Leavitt 1869 - 1937
Grace L. Leavitt Cascaden 1873 - 1965

Siblings:
Caroline C. Ware Leavitt 1836 - 1917
Lyman Ware 1841 - 1916
Ann Louisa Ware 1843 - 1845
Lincoln Clark Ware 1849 - 1883
Henry Martin Ware 1854 - 1914

------------------
Photo is the property of Ann Tindall

Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen