Background
Levi was born on March 13, 1820 in Hadley, Massachussets, United States, son of Deacon Jason and Abigail (Montague) Stockbridge and elder brother of Henry Smith Stockbridge. The responsibilities of the home farm early fell to him.
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Levi was born on March 13, 1820 in Hadley, Massachussets, United States, son of Deacon Jason and Abigail (Montague) Stockbridge and elder brother of Henry Smith Stockbridge. The responsibilities of the home farm early fell to him.
After the district school he had attended Hopkins Academy, and his keen intellectual curiosity drove him to spend his evenings and rainy days in further study.
For several winters Stockbridge taught the district school and in the local Lyceum trained himself as a speaker and writer. Seeing clearly the need of improved farming methods and of greater knowledge of underlying scientific principles, he studied the works of Liebig, of Lawes and Gilbert, and of Johnson, and while still a young man, won for himself more than local repute as a pioneer in agricultural experiment. His active interest in civic and political affairs brought about his election as a representative in the Massachusetts legislature in 1855, 1870, 1883, and as state senator in 1865-66.
From 1869 to 1891 he served continuously as cattle commissioner, winning distinction by his vigorous and determined work in the control of contagious disease. When the Massachusetts Agricultural College took form at Amherst in 1867, he became its farm superintendent and instructor in agriculture. The public trials of plows and mowing machines which he conducted drew entries from manufacturers in all parts of the country, and did much for the improvement of farm implements. His years of experience as farmer and business man served him well in shaping for the students a course of instruction combining classroom lectures with practical work on the farm, a plan for which no pattern existed and few textbooks were available.
Friend and counselor to "his boys, " he won the respect and affection of all students. Tall, spare, bearded, with keen, compelling eye, he blended in his speech the English of the King James Bible with the forceful pungency of Yankee diction. Not only did many students receive from him aid in completing the college course, but even the College itself was at least once carried through a financial crisis by money raised on his personal notes.
As professor of agriculture from 1869 to 1880, and as president of the College, 1880-82, he carried out investigations on the origin of dew, on the value of the soil mulch, and, with the second lysimeter in the country, on the leaching of plant food from the soil.
Resigning from the College in 1882, Stockbridge was made honorary professor of agriculture. His activity in all town matters continued, however, until the end of his life. He was selectman during the years 1870, 1883-87, and 1889-90, was assessor for many years, and was many times moderator of town meeting.
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He married, first, January 20, 1841, Syrena Lamson, who died in 1850; second, November 4, 1853, Joanna Smith, who died in February 1882; and third, October 23, 1883, Elizabeth (Ashcroft) Strong, who survived him. His son, Horace Edward Stockbridge, also won distinction in agriculture, as investigator, writer, and editor.