Levi Lincoln Thaxter papers

Levi Lincoln Thaxter was born on February 2, 1824, in Watertown, Massachusetts, to Levi Lincoln and Lucy White Thaxter. He graduated from Harvard College in 1843 and spent a year in New York City before returning to Cambridge to attend Harvard Law School. He completed his degree in 1846 but never practiced law. Thaxter spent that summer and fall on the Isles of Shoals in New Hampshire, where he met the Laighton family. Thaxter married Celia Laighton at the Laighton family home on Appledore Island on September 30, 1851. With the support of Thaxter’s father, the couple established a home in Newtonville, Massachusetts. They had three sons between 1852 and 1858, Karl, John, and Roland.

The Thaxters divided their time between Newtonville and the Shoals until 1855. In the fall of 1855 Levi and Celia’s brother Oscar were caught in a storm while sailing between Portsmouth and Appledore. They nearly drowned and it was many years before Levi visited the islands again. Celia continued to return to Appledore regularly with her children. She and Levi eventually separated.

Thaxter had no regular occupation for most of his life. He pursued his interest in natural history and made many trips throughout the eastern United States, often accompanied by his younger sons. He was especially interested in ornithology and bryology.

The Newtonville house was sold in 1880. Thaxter moved in with his widowed sister, Lucy Titcomb, and gave readings of Robert Browning’s poetry. In 1881 he moved to Champernowne Farm in Kittery Point, Maine, but his health soon deteriorated. Roland, in medical school at the time, moved in to care for him. Thaxter died on May 31, 1884 and he is buried at First Congregational Church cemetery in Kittery Point. His gravestone bears an original epitaph by Robert Browning.

Sources

Mandel NH. 2004. Beyond the garden gate: the life of Celia Laighton Thaxter. Lebanon (NH): University Press of New England.

Pfister DH. 1984. Roland Thaxter: mycologist and entomologist. In: Wheeler Q, Blackwell M, editors. Fungus-insect relationships: perspectives in ecology and evolution. New York (NY): Columbia University Press.