Leavitt, Mary (1830–1912)

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Leavitt, Mary (1830–1912)

American missionary. Born Mary Greenleaf Clement on Sept 22, 1830, in Hopkinton, NH; died Feb 5, 1912, in Boston, MA; dau. of Joshua H. Clement (Baptist minister) and Eliza Harvey Clement; graduate of State Normal School in West Newton, MA, 1851; m. Thomas H. Leavitt (Boston land broker), June 1857 (div. 1878); children: Amy Clement (b. 1858), Agnes Munn (b. 1859), and Edith Harvey (b. 1863).

Served as an organizer of Boston Woman's Christian Temperance Union; started lecturing in New England for temperance and woman suffrage (1881); became head of Franchise Department of national WCTU (1882); persuaded by Frances Willard to make 7-year foreign missionary tour on behalf of temperance (1884), visited Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, India, Africa, and Europe; responsible for organizing 86 branches of WCTU and 24 men's temperance societies; made temperance mission to Latin America; became estranged from WCTU and Willard (late 1890s).

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