A Farmer’S World: The 1861 Diary of Harvey Devoe, Knox County, Ohio

By Alan Borer

Harvey Devoe (1828-1914) farmed most of his life, and kept a diary for one significant year of that life, 1861. The diary, transcribed here in its entirety, gives a day-by-day view of the life and hard work of a mid nineteenth entury farmer, and the coming of a national tragedy.
Illustrated with family pictures and annotated for a clearer view, Devoes words are both humorous and sarcastic, and although brief, give a unique look into a vanished world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503536807

Alan Borer

Alan Borer is retired from the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and now works part-time for the Otterbein University Library. A native of Ohio, he holds advanced degrees in Library Science from Kent State University and in History from the University of Toledo. He has published articles on the history of Northwest Ohio and of farming/rural culture. Married to Sunny and father to Frederick, he gardens and ruminates in Westerville, Ohio.

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Copyright © 2015 by Alan Borer.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015901057

ISBN:      Hardcover     978-1-5035-3679-1

                Softcover       978-1-5035-3684-5

                eBook            978-1-5035-3680-7

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Rev. date: 03/27/2015

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A FARMER’S WORLD: THE 1861 DIARY OF HARVEY DEVOE, KNOX COUNTY, OHIO

H ARVEY DEVOE WAS not a famous person, or even an infamous one. He did not get his name in the newspaper, make a pile of money, or invent a new technology. He was, in some ways, the inhabitant of a different civilization. Whereas we live in a time that is marked by fast transportation, faster communication, and effortless change, Harvey Devoe lived in a world characterized by slow change, a horse-drawn and muscle-powered world. He did however leave behind a diary for an important year of his life. In that sense he was unusual. He told the story of his days for other, later people to read. In doing so, he gave us a look into that different civilization, and this book shares that look with readers in this other, newer civilization.

Discovery

We were wandering in a desultory way through a maze of tables and benches at a flea market in southeastern Ohio. It was the first weekend in October, 1987, and I was out looking at early fall color and dreaming of a past with less urban sprawl and a closer appreciation of the natural world. An old school friend was with me, and we stopped at the flea market just to look, not buy. Flea markets tend to be the lowest point of the retail world.

It was at a small table manned by an older couple that I noticed a box of battered leather and cloth wallets, mostly empty and frayed. As I shuffled through them however, I discovered that one contained a small diary. The diary had writing in it; not extensively, but daily in a notable year: 1861. Intrigued, I looked at the small manuscript more closely. Inside the front cover, written on the flyleaf, was a name I couldn’t quite make out in the dim lighting, and a place: Fredericktown, Ohio. And the dealer’s price: $35.00.

Now keep in mind, this was long before eBay. I was just out of college, working for peanuts, with unobtainable dreams of being an antiquarian with an interest in rare books about the older, rural world. But this little diary quickened my pulse. Here was my chance to solve a mystery. A little manuscript which could be savored, and then painstakingly researched and transcribed, complete with marginal notes by myself. It was history, it was history from my particular period of interest, and it was about Ohio agriculture, my chosen area of historical expertise. At least, that is how I saw myself.

But the price was a bit high given my income, so I put the book down and wandered around awhile. I knew, though, that I would find nothing so interesting that day, and might not for years to come. I dragged my friend back to the table and the old wallets. A scientist, which he was, does not get worked up about little old diaries, so he stood noncommittally by while I again leafed through its pages. I knew that Fort Sumter had fallen in April of 1861, so as a test I flipped to April 13th and there were the words, Bad news from the South Ft Sumter attacted. This made up my mind, and I turned to the gentleman and asked if he would take $25 for it. As it happened the merchandise belonged to his wife, so he asked her, and she agreed. As I paid, she smiled and said, Are you a Civil War buff?

I squirmed a bit. I wanted the diary as much for its insight into a vanished rural world as for its wartime chronicle, but couldn’t quite frame a good way of telling her that as I spent my lunch money for two weeks. Well, just a buff, I guess, I answered, uncertainly. I placed the diary in my coat pocket, and darted out into a gray October afternoon.

Now it may or may not have been a sign, but later that afternoon, I found a $20 dollar bill in a phone booth (this was also before the days of cell phones). The diary was practically paid for, and I felt none of the guilt that usually tormented me over big purchases. Returning home the next day, we detoured slightly to drive through Fredericktown, a town of 1800 (then) souls in gently rolling farm country in northwestern Knox County. In the center of town was a former Methodist church, with a date, 1857, on its lintel. This church would have surely been seen by my diarist in the year of his chronicle. He had stood there in his time, as I stood there in mine, sharing in common a little book of cloth and paper. Thus did I begin to make my acquaintance with Mr. Harvey Devoe, of Knox County, Ohio.

Harvey Devoe: Who Was He?

Harvey Devoe was thirty-two years old when he began keeping his diary. There is no way of knowing whether he kept one in previous years. In the back of the 1861 diary there are miscellaneous jottings from as late as 1871. One might guess from this that he did not keep a diary in the following years, but that is merely supposition. Harvey did not miss a single day of 1861, but it would also be a guess to say that the diary habit was well ingrained by then.

Why Harvey kept a diary in 1861 is also unstated. The events leading up to the Civil War might have moved him to record what would be a fateful year. Yet many of his jottings did not concern national events. More likely, it might have been that in 1861 Harvey moved out of his father’s house and began housekeeping and farming, if not on his own land, then at least on land for which he alone was responsible. Many of his tasks that year were the jobs of a dutiful husband: painting, wallpapering, installing stovepipe, and so on.

Harvey Devoe was born in Richland County, Ohio on December 22, 1828. According to Carrie Devoe Canan, Harvey’s daughter, Harvey was of Virginia ancestry. A genealogical sketch written by her spells out Harvey’s ancestry:

David DeVoe, of French extraction, was born 12/19/1771, in Frederick County, Virginia. He married Margaret Jewel, of Irish parentage, who had been born on 11/17/1776. David died 1/15/1848, his wife on 4/1/1855 in Frederick County, VA. Samuel DeVoe, son of David and Margaret, was born in Virginia on 3/22/1794. On 9/30/1813, he married Miriam Redd, who was born in Virginia on 2/8/1792. Samuel died in Ohio on 4/6/1872, and is buried in the Quaker Cemetery north of Fredericktown, OH. Miriam died in Ohio on 9/5/1875. [Courtesy Patrick Canan]

Samuel and Miriam Devoe had a large family, including:

Amos Devoe: b. 1815?-1898. m. Lydia. Three children by 1850. Moved to Warren, Iowa.

Samuel J. Devoe: b. November 20, 1817. Married Hannah Files February 26, 1842. Lived in Mount Vernon until 1866, then on a farm on the Gambier Road. d. May 13, 1898.

Harvey Devoe: b. December 22, 1828. d. October 15, 1914. Buried in Forest Cemetery, Fredericktown, Ohio.

David Devoe, b. 1820 or 22 Married Mary? Five children in 1870. Moved to Iowa.

Edward Devoe: b. 1830 or 31. m. Margarite Gennor. Two children by 1870.

Emeline Devoe: b. 1826? m. David Dickey (b. 1821) Four children by 1870. Moved to Iowa

Harvey married Martha Hanastafiel (there are several spellings of her name in the records) on August 24, 1856. Born in Maryland, Martha was six years younger than Harvey. She was a former house servant, living in the home of her employer in 1850. One suspects Martha was from a poor family. Her twenty year marriage to Harvey was childless.

image001.jpg

Figure 1. Harvey and Martha Devoe (wedding portrait?)

(1856?) [Courtesy Patrick Canan.]

image003.jpg

Figure 1a. Harvey and Martha Devoe (1861?)

[Courtesy Patrick Canan.]

Civil War

Harvey may have suspected that war was coming, given his reporting of the secession crisis in January of