San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EMMITT W. DEVINE
A vineyardist, who while evolving
something scientific and helping to advance California agriculture, has also
produced one of the showplaces of San Joaquin County, is E. W. Devine, who
resides two miles southeast of Acampo.
He was born in Springfield, Missouri, on May 10, 1873, the son of
William M. Devine, a native of County Kildare, Ireland, who had married Miss
Sarah Limbaugh, a native of Alabama. At
the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Devine enlisted in the Confederate Army; and
when he was denied a furlough to return home and see his mother who was
critically ill, he took French leave and joined her, and on account of
subsequent unjust treatment, eventually left the Confederate Army and joined the
Union forces, and served for the balance of the War in the Army of the
Mississippi. Previous to the outbreak of
hostilities, he had removed to Arkansas, but during the war his mother moved
back into Missouri, and so his parents had to go through the terrible days of
guerrilla warfare.
Of the children born to the worthy
couple, E. W. Devine first saw the light in the Iron State, the sisters and
brothers being Margaret, Gillson, William M., Jr.,
Alice and Bell, and Mack, the one younger than our subject. The latter attended the common schools in
Missouri, and then went to business college. His father died when the boy was five years
old, and he lived then with his mother and an uncle. These conditions led him to push out into the
world when he was seventeen years old, and commence to make a way for
himself. He worked for wages until he
was married on June 23, 1898, at Springfield, Missouri, when he became the
husband of Miss Ella Cossins, born near Springfield,
the daughter of D. C. and Theresa Cossins. Her father was a farmer; and although she was
one of a large family, she enjoyed all the educational advantages afforded near
Springfield.
After their marriage, Mr. Devine
engaged in the ice business; and for three years he was also stone sawyer. In 1905 he came to McCloud, California, and
for three years was foreman for the McCloud Railroad Company. In 1908 he returned to Springfield, Missouri,
and remained there for a year. Then in
1909 he came back to Lodi, and for five years he worked for the Lodi Soda
Works. In 1915 he was employed by Mason
Brothers at Lodi, and then he bought a small ranch, of five acres of vineyard,
on Walnut Avenue. He had this place for
only a short time, then sold it and bought a vineyard ranch of twenty acres
about three miles north of Woodbridge.
He sold this after a year, and then purchased a vineyard tract of
fifteen acres west of Woodbridge, where he lived until January, 1921, when he
sold that place and purchased the fifteen acres on which he now resides about
two and one-quarter miles southeast of Acampo. This ranch half of which is in
Tokay grapes, and half in Mission, is well irrigated, the water being conducted
through concrete pipes. Mr. Devine also
leases two vineyards which he operates besides his ranch home, one a tract of
twenty acres north of Acampo, and one a seven-acre vineyard southwest of Lodi.
Four children have blessed the
marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Devine. Naomi
has married, and is Mrs. Charles Morris of Lodi; Leslie is at home; Blanche is
a stenographer at Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Clifford is at home. A Democrat in matters of national political
import, Mr. Devine has always been a broad-minded, efficient local booster, a
good citizen, neighbor, and friend; and for a short time while he was living at
Fort Smith, Arkansas, he served as a deputy sheriff. He is a member of the lodge of Odd Fellows at
Walnut Grove, Missouri; of the Lodi lodges of the Red Men and the Modern
Woodmen of America; and also belongs to the Court of Honor at Walnut Grove.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
1586. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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