Devoe, Daniel Isaac

Daniel Isaac Devoe

Surnames: Bauder, Failing, Geraedy, Klock, Ragans, Saltsman, Shumway,
Smith, Snell, Van Horner, Weiskotten, Zoller

Source: History of the Mohawk Valley - Gateway to the West - 1614-1925
Covering The Six Counties of Schenectady, Schoharie,
Montgomery, Fulton, Herkimer and Oneida.
Volume IV, Illustrated; Page 524
Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1925

Daniel Isaac Devoe, the well known merchant and manufacturer of Fort Plain, New York, was born in Herkimer County and comes from a long line of ancestors who have made the Empire state their home since the very early Colonial days. The family, variously known as DeVoe, DeVeau, deVeaux and deVaux, is of French origin and dates back to those dim centuries of the Middle Ages when records were few and ill kept, so that its precise development will never be known. So early as the year 749 A. D., a branch of the Vaux family is found in Province, but the surname is generally supposed to be derived from a district in Normandy, where the family was first seated. Prominent among the government officials of the early period of French national history are men bearing the name of Vaux and Veaux. The first member of the deVeaux or De Vos family in America was Matheus DeVos, who is known to have been living in New Amsterdam in 1653. He appears to have been a man of considerable importance in the colony, as he was a public notary and frequently appeared in the court of burgomasters and schepeus as an attorney for litigant parties. Left a widower by the death of his wife soon after his arrival in the colony, he married the widow of Philip Geraerdy, nee Maria Pollet, in 1656. A little later a brother, Henry, and a younger sister, Anna, were also found in New Amsterdam.

It is from a representative of another branch of the family, however, that the Devoes of Herkimer County trace their descent. In 1657 one David du Four, whose name presented another variation of the original spelling, came to New York with his wife and son. David du Four was a native of Mons in Hainault. When this place was threatened by the successes of the French in the Walloon districts he retired with others of his family to Sedan and afterward to Amsterdam, where he, though fitted by education for a better position, became a hopperman, or drayman. During his stay in Sedan his wife died, leaving him with a little son Jean or John, born there. On July 10, 1657, he married a Jeanne Frances, aged thirty-two, from Queivrain, a little east of Mons, and in the same year came to America with his wife and son. In this country he located in Harlem, where he obtained about ten morgens of land in 1662, and he was living there in 1674, when Nicholas deVaux arrived in the colony. Some authorities think that the subsequent change in the du Four name was due to the similarity between it and that of the new neighbor. In 1677 David du Four and his son secured a grant of sixty acres of land near Turtle Bay on the East river, where he resided until his death, about 1698. Besides John the children mentioned in his will are: David, Peter, Claude and Adrien.

The line of descent of the branch of the family concerning us here came through John, born in 1655, who married Jannetje Van Isselteyn in 1676 and by her had a large family of children: Mary, John, Margaret, David, Peter, Rachel, Arientie Jannetie, Elizabeth, Teunis, William and Abraham. He later married Mary Van Woglum of Albany who survived him

Peter Devoe, the third son of John Devoor (or Devoe), was born in 1685. He married Annatje Bisset in or near Albany, and had the following children: George, Anna, Michael, Roelof, Marguerite, and Jacob. He was a boatman by occupation and became the captain of a sloop carrying freight and passengers between New York and Albany. George, Peter's oldest son, was born in 1713 and married, in 1735, Catherine Keller, by whom he had three children: George, Daniel and Jannette, the latter dying young.

George Devoe (II) was born in 1736 and as a young man took part in the Revolution in which he was engaged in several battles, but escaped without wounds. A mirror which, according to family traditions, was brought from France with the family, was buried by him at the beginning of the conflict and dug up afterward to be handed down to the succeeding generations as precious heirloom. He left it to his youngest daughter and since then it has been handed down to the youngest in each generation to the present day. George Devoe settled in Rensselaer County. His first wife was Anna Kelder, who died in 1764, leaving the following children:

John, who settled in Kinderhook, New York, and at the age of fifteen took part in the Revolution; and Anthony. Later Mr. Devoe married Elizabeth Dunning, by whom he had two children: Elizabeth, born in 1768, and Maria, born in 1771.

Anthony, second son of George Devoe, was born March 11, 1762, and at the age of eighteen bore arms against the British in the Revolution. Later he settled in Schaghticoke with his father and brother John. In 1783 he married Helen (or Helena) Vanderburg or Vandenburg, who bore him nine children: George; Cornelius; John, who lived in Warren; Wayant, also of Warren; Mrs. Maria Osterhout; Elizabeth Jewell; Hannah Springer; Sarah Brown; and one other. Anthony Devoe removed to Andrustown in 1798, where he lived until his death on January 12, 1844, in his eighty-second year.

Cornelius Devoe, son of Anthony, was born April 30, 1797, and was a farmer all of his active life at Warren, Herkimer County, where he died at an advanced age, in December, 1888. By his wife, Ann Devoe of Pilestown, Rensselaer County, whom he married in 1819, he had the following children: Wallace G., who married Emma Mattison and lived at Warren; Julia A., who married Joseph Ludden and lived in Columbia; Daniel Anthony; Groddis; and Sarah, who married David Wallace.

Daniel Anthony Devoe, oldest child of Cornelius and father of Daniel Isaac Devoe, was born in Warren, Herkimer County, on the 19th of April, 1820. After obtaining an education in the Springfield high school and academy he spent some years assisting his father on the farm during the summer and teaching school during the winter months. On the 6th of May, 1847, he started out for himself by leasing a farm, which he operated for some years and eventually bought in 1851. He lived in his native place until 1863 when he moved to the town of Canajoharie, where he bought a two-hundred acre farm in which he spent the remainder of his life, passing away on December 28, 1898. A prosperous farmer and a prominent citizen, he took an active part in the life of his community. For a number of years he was a school trustee and a deacon in the Universalist church of Fort Plain. He was also a member of the local lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. The year that he leased a farm of his own Daniel Anthony Devoe married Maria Snell of FordsBush, Herkimer County, daughter of Conrad and Margaret Bellinger Snell, both of Revolutionary stock. Her paternal grandfather, Peter Snell, fought in the Revolution and was the only one of seven brothers to survive the battle of Oriskany. Her maternal grandfather likewise fought in the war and was scalped by the Indians on October 25, 1781. Six children were born to Daniel A. and Maria (Snell) Devoe: Nelson died at the age of four. Margaret Ann was married to Schuyler Duryee of Everett, Washington, and they had the following children : Leverich Duryee, who married Alice McFarland and has a son, Schuyler Duryee; Albert Duryee, who married Grace Gardner; Daniel A. Duryee, who married Clotilde Robinson; Korekiyo Tackahash Duryee, who married Louise Thompson; and Agnes Duryee, who married Gilpin Sutton. Charlotte N. Devoe married Dr. Alvero Zoller of West Union, Iowa, and has two children: Leslie A. and Maud A. Zoller. Daniel Isaac Devoe is mentioned at length in the following paragraphs. Ida died at an early age and Demetra Estelle is now Mrs. Frank W. Bauder and the mother of two children, Harry Devoe and Edna May Bauder.

Born in Warren, the family home, on the 19th of January, 1860, Daniel Isaac Devoe has lived all of his life in New York state. He was educated in the district schools near his country home and the Clinton Liberal Institute, from which he graduated in 1878 and supplemented this general training with a business course in the Rochester Commercial College, which has sent forth so many young men to become leaders in the business life of central New York. In 1879 Mr. Devoe came to Fort Plain to take a position as clerk in the drugstore conducted by Petit & Reid, but a year later went to Canajoharie, where he engaged in the drug business for himself in partnership with John N. Snell. Mr. Snell subsequently sold his interests to Thomas E. Dygert, upon which change in ownership the firm became Devoe & Dygert. In 1885 Mr. Devoe returned to Fort Plain, which has since been his home, after selling out his holdings in the Canajoharie store, and in partnership with W. F. Shumway established a wholesale and retail drug business here under the firm name of Devoe & Shumway. This business was successfully conducted by these two men for over thirty-five years. The partnership was finally terminated in 1893 when Mr. Devoe sold his share in the business to his partner in order to give his entire attention to the manufacture of knit underwear, in which he had become deeply interested. The firm with which he is associated was incorporated in 1902 as the Fort Plain Knitting Company and has had a very prosperous career in this branch of the textile industry. Mr. Devoe is at present largely responsible for its successful operation in his dual office of general manager and treasurer and has already proven himself an able executive and financier in this connection.

For the past thirty-eight years Mr. Devoe has held the position of trustee in the Universalist church of Fort Plain, in which his father served as deacon a generation or so ago. He is a prominent Mason, his affiliations being with the following bodies of that order: Fort Plain Lodge, No.433, F. & A. M., in which he was master for four years; Hiram Union Chapter, No. 53, Royal Arch Masons; Knights Templars Commandery, No. 26, of Little Falls; Ziyara Temple of the Mystic Shrine of Utica. Mr. Devoe is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and belongs to the Fort Plain Club. A lifelong adherent of the republican party he served Montgomery County as treasurer for three years, being elected as the candidate of his party for that office. Mr. Devoe has always been keenly interested in all that pertains to the advancement of Fort Plain and in many tangible ways has shown his public-spiritedness in community affairs, so that he well deserves his position as one of the leading citizens of the town.

On the 24th of May, 1882, Mr. Devoe was united in marriage to Miss Agnes E. Shumway, daughter of Joseph Hill and Cornelia (Van Horne) Shumway, who was born August 19, 1860, and died January 8, 1915. On both sides of the family Mrs. Devoe traced her lineage back to the early Colonists; to Peter Shumway of French Huguenot extraction who sought refuge in America after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes some time before 1655, and to Jan Conneliesseu Van Horn who came to New Amsterdam as early as 1645. She was a member and active worker in the Fort Plain Chapter, daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Devoe had one child: Ethel, who was born September 24, 1884, and educated in Dean Academy and Dr. Savage's Normal School of Physical Education, from which she graduated. On the 28th of May, 1916, she was married to Eugene Mercer Weiskotten of Syracuse,a civil engineer and an alumnus of Syracuse University. Daniel I. Devoe was married the second time in Fort Plain, New York, on the 1st day of June, 1916, Miss Lillian Adrian Failing becoming his wife. She is the daughter of Adam L. and Rachel (Smith) Failing and comes from one of the old Mohawk Valley families. She is a direct descendant of Nicholas Failing of pre-Revolutionary days, who built the so-called "Fort Failing," a stone dwelling that stood on the south side of the river between Fort Plain and Canajoharie until about 1833, when it was burned. Another of her paternal ancestors is John Klock, who owned and occupied a palisaded stone house, known as "Fort Klock," during the Revolution. This building is still standing at Klock's Field about a mile east of St. Johnsville. Through her mother Mrs. Devoe is descended from several of the well known New England families, the Bates, Tower, Clark and Cooper lines. Mrs. Devoe was educated in the Clinton Liberal Institute of Fort Plain, from which she graduated in the class of 1892 and in Evelyn College, Princeton, New Jersey, where she obtained her diploma in 1897. She is a member of fort Plain Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, joining on records of service of ancestors in the Failing, Klock, Smith and Bates families.