John McDowell Leavitt

Who was John McDowell Leavitt?

Rev. Dr. John McDowell Leavitt, D.D., LL.D. was an early Ohio lawyer, Episcopal clergyman, poet, novelist, editor and professor. Leavitt served as the second President of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and as President of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.

John Leavitt was born on May 10, 1824, at Steubenville, Ohio, the son of Humphrey Howe Leavitt, a U.S. Congressman from Ohio and later U.S. District Court judge, and his wife Maria Antoinette McDowell, daughter of physician Dr. John McDowell of Chester County, Pennsylvania. John Leavitt graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Jefferson College, and subsequently studied law with his father and with Judge Noah Haynes Swayne. Leavitt established a law practice at Cincinnati, Ohio, but after four restless years he gave up his practice and entered the theological seminary at Gambier, Ohio.

After his graduation from seminary, Leavitt was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1848, and deacon in 1862. Leavitt embarked on a career as an editor poet, professor, writer and university president. From 1868 to 1871 he served as the editor of The American Quarterly Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register.