Bradford Leavitt

"Youthful, brilliant, with a mind trained by keen scientific observation, his message could not have failed to capture the attention of his hearers," wrote Mary Rogers Cabot in her Annals of Brattleboro, 1681–1895.

In 1899 Leavitt delivered a eulogy to Vermont Senator Justin S. Morrill that demonstrated his lean speaking style, beginning with a simple sentence: "In moments of deepest emotion we are instinctively silent.

"The struggles of the coming century will be largely social," the pastor wrote on his acceptance of his new West Coast ministry.

"Personal salvation will give way to social salvation.” In 1903, Leavitt took the podium to address the convention of the California State Suffrage Association at Golden Gate Hall.

[8] By early 1906 Leavitt felt so confident of his mission that he wrote glowingly of the church's reinvigorated finances and activist social program.

On April 18, 1906, the San Francisco earthquake hit the city, setting buildings alight, killing scores, devastating Leavitt's ministry, and despoiling his church.

The tremors shook the church's bell from its tower, sending it careening through the roof, interrupting worship services for a considerable period.

The city's mayor was convicted in the investigation that followed, and the entire Board of Supervisors resigned in the wake of the scandal.

"We have dreamed we were living under the government of laws," Leavitt wrote following the attempted assassination of Assistant San Francisco District Attorney Heney, who was investigating corruption Leavitt helped uncover, "whereas we were living under the government of newspapers hired by corrupt corporations, and the enemies of civic decency.

"[13] Leavitt left the ministry for business in 1913 and became a successful San Francisco merchant, living at 2511 Octavia Street and at his ranch in Woodside, California, on the peninsula south of the city.

Fageol to create one of America's earliest automotive companies, founded in Oakland, California, a venture that later failed.

[16] The progressive Leavitt remained loyal to his alma mater, serving with the Harvard Club of San Francisco.

Edwin Bradford Leavitt (who later dropped his first name) was married to Grace Wentworth (née Smith) in Boston on May 9, 1892.

Leavitt's views were best summarized in an address he gave to the graduating class of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of San Francisco on May 19, 1904, at the Alhambra Theater on the cusp of the quake that decimated the city.