Lurana Faustina Leavitt was born in North Turner, Maine on May 9, 1837, to Orren Henry Leavitt and Abigale Boles Leavitt.
Faustina taught a term of school at age 15. She alternately worked in the Lewiston, Maine mills and attended school in Lewiston from 1853 to 1855. In 1855 she read “Home Scene” at a lyceum. From about 1855 she wrote and submitted several articles to the Lewiston Journal and the Advocate. By 1856 she had left mill work permanently. In January 1856 she gave the first of several lectures on women's rights. During this time she was teaching and continued her writing.
Faustina arrived in the Prescott, Wisconsin area in November 1861 where she taught school one term. She was married to Ephraim H. Whitaker at Prescott, April 8, 1862, then took up residence on a Point Douglas, Minnesota farm. She continued her writing by corresponding with The Hastings Gazette and other newspapers in the area. She was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She gave birth to seven children, two of whom died while young. Mr. Whitaker died February 6, 1904. Faustina married R.C. Thompson June 12, 1905 and they lived on a farm in Town of Denmark, Washington County, Minnesota until moving to Hastings in 1910. She died May 24, 1915. (Obituary information and marriage to R.C. Thompson verified by The Daily Gazette, Hastings, MN, May 25, 1915.)
