Thomas Devin 1792-1873 Early Pioneer

DEVIN, DEVINNE

Posted By: Mary (email)
Date: 9/30/2006 at 12:12:04

THOMAS DEVIN was of Huguenot decent, the original name having been DeVinne.He was the son of Michael, who was a refuge in the north of Ireland and emigrated to Maryland. While Thomas was yet a lad his parents removed to the vacinity of Marietta, Ohio, where they had a farm of four hundred acres. Here he bagan to exhibit some of the tact for business affairs which characterized his later life.

At twenty years of age he made a trip with a flat-boat laden with farm produce down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, which was then their best market., and continued for several years these annual excursions.

He married and removed to Morgan county, settling upon a tract of eight hundred acres of land, and opened a farm. But his inclination for mercantile persuits led him to giving up farming and he removed to McConnellsville, arranged for a store and began merchandising, which thereafter; was the chief business of his life. From McConnellsville he went in 1835 to Oxford, Ohio and thence two years subsequently to Decatur, Illinois. In 1839 with his wife and seven children he removed to Iowa, settling at Pittsburg, in the Des Moines Valley, where he continued in trade until 1855, when he settled permanently at Ottumwa. Here entering upon a business which he established while residing in Pittsburg, he prospered and became one of the wealthiest men in that section of the State. His sons were all educated in the colleges of Ohio.

The Ottumwa "Courier", in a notice of him says: "Mr. Devin has been identified with the interests in Ottumwa since 1844, but did not move his family here until 1855. He has thus been a leading man among the moneyed and commercial men in the Des moines valley until the infirmities of age obliged him to narrow down his business operations. He was a man of singular purity of life as well as inflexibility op purpose. His nme is widly and firmly engraved upon the commercial history of all this part of Iowa, and always reliable, active, energicic business man; in the social circle of congenial, kind neighbor and friend, and in hus domestic relations as th ebest of husbands and kindest of fathers."

Courtesy of Beth; Thomas was her g.g.g.g. Grandfather. He is buried at the Ottumwa Cemetery.

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