John Devereux was born in 1774 in Wexford Ireland and was the second oldest of nine children. The Devereux were an old, well-to-do, respected Roman Catholic family in which lost lives and money in the short but bloody Irish Rebellion of 1798.

John had fortunately left Ireland before the troubles of 1798, and after a sojourn in France arrived in the United States in mid-1796. In September of that year, "John C. Devero, Dancing Master, lately from Europe" advertised that he was opening a Dancing School in Hartford Connecticut. Two years later he advertised that he was teach­ing in Windham and Tolland. He taught also in the Connecticut towns of Middletown and Norwich, Pittsfield and elsewhere in Massachusetts, and in Troy, New York.

The family tradition from John's mouth is that he "danced one thousand dollars out of the New Englanders", and this $1,000 started the immensely successful Devereux merchant business. When John opened his store in 1802, Utica was a hamlet of a few hundred persons. Judging from the Utica store advertisements of the Devereux and others of that time, the merchandise sold included whiskey, gin, wine, brandy, cigars, tobacco and snuff. John did well enough so that by 1805 he had bought property in Utica, and then by 1806 on the waterfront of Sackets Harbour, where he and his brother Nicholas later had a store.

  Devereux Building circa   1960s

 In 1814 Utica was growing rapidly. He was joined by his brother Nicholas and the firm became John C. and Nicholas Devereux. At this first recorded partnership of John and Nicholas, John was forty, having arrived in America at the age of twenty-two, eighteen years before. Nicholas was twenty-three, with widely varied and helpful experience. These two brothers, with their initiative, ability, and seventeen year age-gap, were destined to leave a notable record in Utica, a community that grew at mushroom speed during their lifetimes.

John C. Devereux - The Irishman

John C. Devereux as a very successful and respected merchant was recognized as the       "Chief Irishman" of Utica and served as the Grand Marhall of the St. Patrick's Day Parade each year, wearing a green sash and sporting a genuine Shamrock from teh " ould sod" in his button hole, until his death in 1848.  He arranged the first banquet in Utica on               St. Patrick  in 1824, which was held in 1822 by the Irish population in Utica, augmented by the Irishmen who came to work on the canal.  Each member paid one dollar in Utica, at the time of his initiation and a dollar yearly while he continued to be a member.  After one year, a member was entitled in case of illness to medical aid.  In addition, a sum of money which ranged from fifty cents to two dollars per week.  At the time of a members death, the society attended the funeral and paid the funeral expenses.  In 1840, John C Devereux, a man born in Ireland who came to this country with very little, was elected by the citizens of Utica as its Mayor.

John C. Devereux - The Catholic

John C. Devereux was the pioneer in the movement to establish the first Roman Catholic Church West of Albany, and the fourth in New York State.  Through his efforts, Father Michael O'Gorman came to Utica and on January 10, 1819 said mass in the old Court House and Academy on Chancellor Square.  On January 25th, 1819 a meeting was held in the home of Devereux and "the first Catholic Church in the Western Districk of New York" was incorporated.  Father Farnam became the first pastor and his residence was a small wooded house on the East side of the quare.  John and Nicholas Devereux donated        $1, 125 to start the church.  Also, in 1830 John C. Devereux donated a piece of property on upper Steuben Street to St. John's Church to be the first Catholic Cemetery.  In the year 1834, John C Devereux and his brother requested the Sisters of Charity to conduct a Catholic orphanage and day school in Utica.  As a result, three Sisters were sent from the Mother House  at Emmitsburg, Maryland.  Tradition has it that they arrived, with their scant belongings, by canal boat on May 1st, 1834.  The Sisters were lodged in Devereux's home on Broad Street until the first building could be completed for their use.  Each of the Devereux brothers contributed $5000.00 and they opened the first orphanage in a small frame dwelling house in the center of the lot just South of St. John's Church on John Street.  In December of that year, three children were received in the small story and a half house, which number soon increased to eight.  John C. Devereux, a kindhearted man, a lover of children although he had none of his own, visited the orphanage daily.  The institution was incorporated in 1848.  A day school, the predecessor of Utica Catholic Academy, was opened a short time later in an adjourning building on Burnet Street 4.

                                                                     Devereux Block