David Leavitt (banker)
[2] For his role in helping prevent the collapse of the canal scheme, Chicago authorities named Leavitt Street after the financier.
[7] The ambitious David Leavitt Jr. left rural Connecticut in 1813 at age 22 for New York City, where he began his career as a clerk in a produce and commission house.
The government of Colombia, facing a conflict at home, had paid a group of New York merchants to build a warship and equip it with armaments for use by the South American nation.
Ultimately, those building the vessel were unable to complete the transaction, and Leavitt stepped in, paying for the ship's construction, and assuring that the United States government would help arm it with munitions.
[12] Acting as a lender to the business from its inception, Leavitt stepped in to take control in 1825 and founded the Brooklyn White Lead Company, later Dutch Boy Paint.
[13] Leavitt had already had a home built in Brooklyn, where he took up residence with his wife Maria Clarissa (Lewis), a native of Goshen, Connecticut.
During his tenure at American Exchange, there was a financial panic, during which European bondholders of the State of Illinois declared their intention to foreclose on the bonds issuer.
"Grave fears were entertained that the bonds would not be paid", wrote The New York Times, "and several financiers had failed in placing them in the European market, but by pledging his own credit, Mr. Leavitt succeeded in creating a degree of confidence in the scheme, and it was a source of pride to him in after years that all the holders of the bonds eventually received both principal and interest.
"[11] To reassure the bondholders, Leavitt not only advanced his own funds, but traveled to England to meet jittery European stakeholders.
[28] At the outbreak of the Civil War, Leavitt was named permanent chairman of Great Barrington's committee to aid the Union effort.
[31] The building received extensive write-ups [32] in the following years, including one by Horace Greeley,[33] for its mechanical ingenuity and devices, but nothing apart from the foundations remains today following an 1885 fire.
