The Leavenworths Return Home
Hinesburg Then & Now: 19th century portraits now hanging in Town Hall
By Penrose Jackson
For The Record
Betsy Hurlbut Leavenworth and her stepson, Henry Levin Wentworth, have come home to Hinesburg after nearly 200 years.
Early this year the town received their portraits from their descendant, Wright Preston, to hang in Town Hall, not far from their 1795 Federalist home built by Betsy’s husband and Henry’s father, General Nathan Leavenworth.
Betsy’s portrait was likely painted by Charles Curtis, according to the National Archives. Henry’s was likely painted by an itinerant artist. Many of these early 1800 paintings are considered masterpieces of American folk art. The portraits were not signed, and the Shelburne Museum could not authenticate them.
Henry lost his wife in childbirth and never remarried, and it appears that the portraits went to the care of his stepsister, Rachel, and later to her granddaughter, Marjorie Perry Clark, who died in 1992.
Marjorie’s daughters, in turn, bequeathed the pieces to their children. Last year, Betsy’s great-great-great-great grandson, Wright Preston, became their custodian, and reached out to Town Manager Todd Odit who happily accepted the gift.
“It seemed like a natural fit to have them hang here somewhere in Town Hall, since we don’t have a historical society where they could be displayed otherwise,” Odit said. The paintings arrived and were hung in late spring. “We just wanted to get them hung up somewhere in the event we find a better place for them.”
Their histories
Betsy was born Jan. 17, 1782, in Arlington, Vermont, lived in Burlington, and became the second wife of General Nathan Leavenworth of Hinesburg. They lived in Hinesburg, where the general was a prominent farmer and landholder. Nathan was born in 1764 in New Milford, Connecticut, and died in Hinesburg in 1849.
Betsy was the stepmother of and raised Henry, who was born in Hinesburg Aug. 1, 1798, the son of Nathan and Anna Buck Buckingham who died in 1805.
Henry graduated from the University of Vermont in 1821 and earned a second degree in 1824. Henry practiced law in Burlington and served as Chittenden County State’s attorney from 1842 to 1843 and also represented Burlington in the state legislature. Henry was a director of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank in Burlington. He developed Leavenworth Block on College Street in Burlington.
Henry died in Burlington on May 10, 1854.
The Leavenworth home was built in 1795 and is located on the north side of Leavensworth Road. (No one is quite sure when the ‘s’ appeared in town maps.) The original farm was comprised of over 500 acres.
The house and farm were sold to Frances Wilson Perry in 1920. In addition to that home, over time the family owned the Wilson House (on the corner of Route 116 and Charlotte Road), which was razed to improve that intersection some years ago.
The Leavenworth homestead on Leavenworth road 🛣️ is the first 🥇 house 🏠 on the right. Many 🐕🐶 dog walkers and others have for years parked at the beginning of the dirt road, which leads to Carpenter Road, near the Charlotte line.