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Devendorf, Major H. C., was born in Verona, Oneida county, in June, 1828, son of Peter Devendorf, a native of
Herkimer county, one of thirteen children of Rudolph and Barbara (Thumb) Devendorf, natives of Mohawk Valley. Rudolph
officiated as judge, assemblyman, county clerk, and held other offices in Herkimer county. Peter Devendorf came
to Hastings in 1832, was elected justice of the peace the following year, which office he held twenty years; was
also supervisor fourteen years. His wife was Rhoda A. Sherman, a native of Oneida county. They had five children,
Henry C., Rudolph H., Mary, Mrs. Rhoda A. Breed, of Central Square, and Mrs. Catherine Beebe, of Central Square.
At the age of sixteen he began as clerk in Oswego, later clerked in various places until twenty four years of age,
when, in 1853, he purchased of his uncle his general store in Hastings, which he conducted until 1856, when he
removed to Central Square, where he engaged in the same business and where he has since been interested. From 1871
to 1883 he resided in Georgia, where for ten years he served as postmaster of Doctortown postoffice. He then returned
to Central Square, where he owns and conducts the largest dry goods and grocery store in the town. In 1858 he was
made captain of a company of New York State National Guards; later elected lieutenant colonel. In 1862 he raised
a full company, which went from Oswego as Company D in the 110th Regiment, with him as captain; and served until
the close of the war. In 1864 he was promoted major. The last eighteen months of his service was at Fort Jefferson
(Dry Tortugas), and was in command of the post when the Lincoln conspirators arrived, Colonel Hamilton commanding
in Key West. His wife and adopted daughter, Mrs. Emma Dygert Low, were with him during his service in that fort.
In 1853 he married Armonella, daughter of Lorenzo D. Marshall, of Mohawk, N. Y., and granddaughter of John Marshall,
of Warren, N. Y., who enlisted in Colchester, Conn., as a soldier of the Revolution, and was supposed to be the
last one living who witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis, owing to his youth at that time and his great age at
the time of his death. His father was drafted, but was the head of a large family, and his eldest son was accepted
in his place at the age of sixteen, and was ninety nine at the time of his death.
FROM:
Landmarks of Oswego County
New York
Edited by: John C. Churchill, LL.D.
Assisted by: H, Perry Smith and W. Stanley Child
Syracuse, N. Y.
D. Mason & Co., Publishers 1895
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