Butte County
Biographies
NORMAN DEVOL
NORMAN
DEVOL.--Patriotism is a prominent characteristic of the Devol
family. Not only has Norman Devol rendered
valuable service to his country, but other members of the family have been
equally as loyal. He was born in Vermont, on
October 20, 1835, a son of Welcome Devol, who was a
native of Rhode Island and a
soldier in the War of 1812. Grandfather Devol
was born in France. He
was a sailor, and helped to bring over the French troops that were factors in
gaining the liberty of the colonists. He was present with the French
troops at Yorktown, at the time of its
surrender. Welcome Devol married Elizabeth Burrington, who was born in Vermont of English parents.
At
the age of fourteen, Norman Devol left home to go to Fort
Wayne, where he had a sister living. He grew up
there and learned the painter’s trade, serving a three years’
apprenticeship. He received for his first year’s work twenty-five dollars
and his board; for the second year, fifty dollars and his board; and for the
third year, one hundred dollars and his board. He was taken ill with fever
and ague in that new country, and was advised by a physician to go out on the
plains; and in order to keep in the open air, he enlisted in the United
States army for a term of five years,
serving from 1855 to 1860. During that period he saw some very hard
service, and took part in many skirmishes with the Indians in what is now Montana, Colorado,
Utah, New Mexico, Nevada,
Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas,
and California. He passed through
many droves of buffaloes, numbering tens of thousands, in Wyoming
and Nebraska. He was at Fort
Bridger in the fall of 1857, and was one of forty men who were picked to make
their way to Fort Massachusetts, New Mexico, to bring back supplies for General
Johnston’s army, that was facing starvation on account of the Mormons’ having
devastated the country and destroyed the feed by burning all that was
growing. This band of brave men faced death from starvation and exposure
to the cold, but finally reached the fort and returned with needed relief for
the army. Mr. Devol saw California
for the first time in 1859, when he was a soldier in Company I, Tenth Regiment
of Infantry, under Gen. Sydney Johnston. He was mustered out and received
his honorable discharge at Camp Floyd, Utah,
in 1860, with the rank of first sergeant.
Mr.
Devol came to California in
1860 and settled at Swede’s Flat, in Butte
County; and here he worked as a
farmer and at mining. As he prospered, he bought land from the railroad
company; and this he improved by erecting a house and suitable barns, and began
raising grain. At the age of eighty-two he completed a contract for
painting the schoolhouse in the Upham
district. He is hale and hearty, and still enjoys being out of doors as
much as possible.
Norman
Devol was married, in Oroville, to Miss Almira Marley, a daughter of Leonard Marley, who came from
Indiana to California in 1852, via Panama There were nine children in the
family of Mr. and Mrs. Devol, eight of whom are
living: Lillian, the wife of J. B. Elkins, of Phoenix, Ariz.; George, a
mining man at Brownsville, Cal.; Rose, the wife of W. C. Ruff, who is mentioned
on another page of this work; Maggie, Mrs. George Lambert, of Nimshew; Alonzo, a rancher near Bangor; Jean, a dredgerman at Thermalito; Nellie,
Mrs. Oscar Cline, of Stirling City; and Bert, who is
a miner in Nevada. Mrs. Devol died in
1887. When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Devol
had just been married, and he could not enlist in the army. He assisted,
however, in the organization of the Bangor Home Guards, and drilled them; he
was the only member of the Guards that had had any military training. The
guards supplied all their own equipment, and served to the close of the war
without pay.
Transcribed by Louise E. Shoemaker, November 19th
2007.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 512-513, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
©
2007 Louise
E. Shoemaker.
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