Bio: DeVoe, Fred (No date given)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: DeVoe, Bangham, Korah, Edwards, Keine

----Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

DeVoe, Fred (No date given)

Fred DeVoe, manager of the Marathon Granite Company, of Wausau, Wis., has been a resident of this city for fourteen years and is widely known throughout this section. He was born near Richland City, in Richland County, Wis., and is a son of James and Olivia (Bangham) DeVoe and a grandson of Charles B. and Catherine DeVoe.  

Charles B. DeVoe and wife were pioneers in Wisconsin and endured many hardships and dangers incident to the times. They were natives of Herkimer County, N. Y., and died in Richland County, Wis. The former was a blacksmith by trade and probably acquired some land. The maternal grandparents of our subject, Bronson and Helen (Korah) Bangham, came to Richland County from Michigan. James DeVoe, father of Fred, was born at Utica, N. Y., and was twelve years old when, in 1849, he accompanied his parents to Wisconsin. For a short time he resided in Walworth County, but later settled permanently in Richland County, where he lived for 60 years, his death occurring there January 8, 1910. His wife Olivia, who was born in Michigan, is still living and resides with her son at Wausau, being now 63 years old. Their family numbered four children, of whom Fred is the eldest, the others being: Charles B., who is a piano dealer at Richland Center; Mrs. E. H. Edwards, of Richland Center, and Mrs. W. E. Keine, of Milwaukee.  

Fred DeVoe had but few educational advantages m his youth. His father was engaged in the monument business and his services were required on the home farm, on which he worked from his eighth to his sixteenth year. He then went on the road selling monuments and was thus occupied, chiefly in Wisconsin, until he had reached his thirtieth year. He then located in Wausau and engaged in business for himself under the name of the Fred DeVoe Granite Company. In 1899 he secured additional capital, and the firm became the Marathon Granite Company, which has had a prosperous business career. Its present capital is $100,000 and 125 men are employed at the plant and in the quarries, three of the latter being located in Marathon county and one in Marinette county. The granite quarried is suitable both for building and monumental work and is shipped to every state in the Union and also to Canada and Alaska.  

Perhaps few large industries in this section are conducted with so little friction as is the business of the Marathon Granite Company. Mr. DeVoe is a liberal, broad-minded man and has always recognized the just rights of labor, employing union labor entirely and showing by his method of conducting the business that he believes in the old Biblical adage: "The laborer is worthy of his hire." All his employees work but half a day on Saturday. He says that the only society he ever belonged to was a Sunday school. However, he has shown his recognition of the great principle of human brotherhood and his public spirit has brought pleasure to many residents of the city.