The Dudley Name
denotes descent from prominent early Americans from whom Dudley Leavitt did indeed descend and did receive his name. The Dudley family produced four governors of early Massachusetts and were passengers on the 1630 Mayflower. Whether those impressive genes formed him or the rigors of pioneering demanded the pattern of his life is not clear. Whatever the root cause, there was service in his veins and he was true to his heritage.
Following the Revolutionary War, the Leavitt family migrated to eastern Canada and had lived and grown there for generations. The message of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ prompted the large family to leave Hatley, Quebec, to join the fledgling church. Dudley was five years old when he traveled with his parents and seven siblings to Kirtland, Ohio, where they committed their lives and devotion to their new faith.
There followed a tumultuous 15 years that included Nauvoo, the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Dudley’s father, his eldest brother and a sister. Sorrow, sickness, and setbacks attended their weary way. But Dudley, having witnessed the passing of the Prophet’s mantle, never wavered nor faltered.
On his 20th birthday, Dudley reached the Salt Lake Valley, having brought his mother, his sisters and younger brother Thomas safely through. Lemuel had come ahead and had ready shelter and peace.
On his 23rd birthday, he married 17-year-old Mary Huntsman. At 25, he married Mariah, Mary’s 16-year-old sister. September 1855, with two young wives and a baby girl, they embarked upon decades-long adventures with Indians, deserts and drought.
They made homes in Santa Clara, Gunlock, Hebron, Clover Valley and learned to grow cotton, food and feed. One by one they left each place. A new calling, a new crisis, a new quest.
Mesquite Flats colonization became Bunkerville. It began as a desire to form a society of common ownership. Mortal men were not quite prepared for such lofty living and the experiment unfolded.
But it had placed them in this promising place with another desert to make blossom. Dudley Leavitt, husband to 5, father to 50, servant to the savage and friend to the distressed. His legacy confirmed. His destiny well lived.