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TRUMBULL AND MAHONING COUNTIES, OHIO - 305 CHAPTER IX. LEAVITTSBURG. The little railroad village of Leavittsburg, in Warren township, is situated near the original platted village which the owners of this township intended should become the mercantile center. A public square facing the present railroad switch yards was set apart and remained an open common for half a century. But no town was ever started. The open bottom and better mill-sites further down the river was more potent in fixing the place of business than plats and original owners. Yet there was at one time fair prospects fo1 the center village. Samuel Forward built a saw-mill, and a few years later Richard Iddings built a grist-mill. Both these industries expedited improvement and attracted settlers. It was about the time the mill was completed that the name Leavittsburg was adopted as a compliment to the three Leavitt families whose land was around the square. This park was eventually incorporated into a farm on which it joined, and no vestige of a village remained. The present railroad village has sprung up since the completion of both lines of the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio railroad. It is proper that a few pioneers of Leavittsburg should be sketched, They were all closely identified with Warren. As has been elsewhere stated, the original ownership of township four, range four, was vested in Ebenezer King, Jr., and John Leavitt. The latter removed with his family from Connecticut to Warren in the summer of 1800, and erected a cabin on the west side of Main street, which he afterwards converted into a public house of entertainment. The family consisted of Mrs. Silence Leavitt, William, John J., Cynthia, Sally, Henry F., Abdiah, Humphrey, and Albert. One of the girls married Robert Erwin, one of the first merchants, and another Wheeler Lewis. Humphrey Leavitt read law, and located in Steubenville. He afterwards received the appointment of United States district judge. Albert continued to live in the village of Warren. John Leavitt, Jr., settled on a farm near the center of Warren township about 1805. He was a well-to-do farmer, and raised a respected family. John Leavitt, Jr., known as Esquire John, died in Warren in 1815, being at the time county treasurer. Samuel Leavitt, nicknamed Esquire Sam, was born in Connecticut, February 26, 1756. He visited the Reserve for the first time in 1800, and made a purchase of land in Warren township, adjoining the farm on which John Leavitt, Jr., afterwards settled. 'Squire Leavitt with his wife moved from Connecticut to Warren in 1802, and made an improvement on his farm. His was probably the first house in the center of the township. He had married in Cc nnecticut Mrs. Abigail Kent Austin, mother of Benajah Austin. The fruit of this union was one child, Lynda, afterwards wife of Judge Francis Freeman. Mrs. Leavitt died September 4, 1816, aged sixty-six years. Mr. Leavitt removed to Warren in 1817, into a house on Main street. He married for his second wife Mrs. Margaret Kibbee Parsons, mother of George Parsons, Sr. His home until his death, which occurred August 4, 1830, was in Warren. Mrs. Margaret K. Leavitt died at Warren, March 5, 184i. Esquire Enoch Leavitt was the third of the name who settled near Warren center. He wag born in 1746; emigrated from Connecticut with his family during the first decade of settlement, and purchased the land on which the present village stands. He died in 1815, and is buried in Leavittsburg cemetery. His only son, Enoch Leavitt, Jr., was a young man when the family settled in Ohio, and soon became popular as a physician. Dr. Seeley in Howland, Dr. Harmon in Warren, and Dr. Leavitt at Leavittsburg were relied upon in ca ;es of sickness by all the neighborhood within a radius of ten miles. Dr. Leavitt accumulated a large property, having about one thousand acres of land in Warren township at the time of his death. His children were Virgil, Daniel, Lorinda, Emeline, Lucius, and Parinthia, none of whom are now living. Dr. Leavitt died in 1827, at the age of fifty-two years. Benajah Austin, another of the pioneers of the neighborhood of Leavittsburg, and a son of Mrs. Samuel Leavitt by a former husband, was born in Suffield, Connecticut, in the year 1779. From Connecticut he removed to Rupert, Vermont, and from there in 1803 to the Reserve. He married that spring Olive Harmon, and settled on what has been known as the Murberger farm, which was his first purchase. He 306 - TRUMBULL AND MAHONING COUNTIES, OHIO. soon afterwards removed to a farm in the center of Warren township, now owned by Harmon Austin, his son. Mr. Austin was one of the early public men, having been commissioner twelve years, part of the time while the whole Reserve was embraced in Trumbull county. He also served as deputy sheriff one year, and sheriff two terms. Mr. Austin was, however, essentially a farmer, and during his whole life devoted his untiring energies to that employment. His family consisted of six children: Hiram died at Chardon; Julius, living at Braceville; Enos, living at Youngstown; Amelia (deceased March, 1876), wife of S. A. Potter; Benajah died at Warren, and Harmon residing in Warren. Mr. Austin died in February, 1849. His son Benajah read medicine, and practiced for a short time in Warren, but losing his health, he retired on a farm. He died in March, 1871, aged fifty- eight years. Harmon Austin, who succeeded to the old homestead farm, was born in 1817. He lived on the farm till 1870, and then removed to Warren, his present home. He married Minerva Sackett, of Canfield. Their family consists of three children living. Mr. Austin has been engaged in the lumber and flagstone trade. He hal been president of the Warren Flagstone company since its formation in 1872. All the handsome and durable flagging of which the excellent sidewalks of Warren are made came from this company's quarry. One of the earliest settlers on the present site of Leavittsburg was Phineas Leffingwell. His brother Jabez settled in the same neighborhood in 1818. Of the latter's family there were eight children, three of whom survive. Lucy R., widow of Alvin Fobes, resides in Warren.