Born: 1807, Died: 1891
Married: Magdalena Shoemaker
Barnabas Devitt, the son of Dennis Devitt, was born in New Jersey in 1807. At the age of 5, he came with his family to Upper Canada and eventually to the early settlement of Waterloo. When his mother, Polly, went back to New Jersey, leaving her family behind, Abraham Erb and wife Molly, who had just lost their only son Benjamin, “adopted” Barnabas in 1818 when he was 11 years old. In those days adoption was not a formal matter and Barnabas retained his family name. After his adopted father’s death in 1830, Barnabas, commonly called Barney, inherited much of the wealth of land that Erb had amassed in Waterloo Township. He had married Magdalena Shoemaker, a sister of Bridgeport mill owner, Jacob Shoemaker. One of these areas was just north of early Waterloo and here he built a new farm home in 1849 (today commonly called the Voelker home). But in 1851, he sold the farm to Elias Snider and moved to Bridgeport to take over the mills after brother-in-law Jacob Shoemaker declared bankruptcy. Later he owned a farm out near the Martin Meeting House. Then in 1871, he moved back close to Waterloo where he built another new home on a farm at Moore Ave and Erb St. E. (today).
Sources:
Ezra E Eby, A Biographical History of Early Settlers and Their Descendants in Waterloo Township, Eldon D Weber Weber, Editor, 1971.
Marg Rowell, Ed Devitt and Pat McKegney, Welcome to Waterloo,
Waterloo: Waterloo Printing Company, 1982.
Obituary, Waterloo Chronicle, January 20, 1891.
First Mennonite Church. Cemetery Records.
Historical Atlas of Waterloo and Wellington Counties
Grassroots Government: Biographies of Waterloo Township Councillors, Elizabeth Bloomfield and Linda Foster, Caribou Imprints, 1995.
Barnabas Devitt Biography
Description
- Creator
- Little, Ellis, Author
- Media Type
- Text
- Item Type
- Articles
- Description
- This is a handwritten biography of Barnabas Devitt from the Ellis Little Papers. This biography has been transcribed exactly as written. Ellis Little was a local historian, who was the principal of Elizabeth Ziegler Public School.On his retirement, he invested much of his time in researching and writing about Waterloo's history. The Ellis Little Papers consist of extensive notes, papers and historical works.
- Notes
- To see the original document please visit the Ellis Little Local History Room at the Main Branch of the Waterloo Public Library
- Date Of Event
- 1807-1891
- Subject(s)
- Personal Name(s)
- Devitt, Dennis ; Ripple, Polly ; Erb, Abraham ; Devitt, Barnabas
- Local identifier
- ELP 51.38 and ELP 63.42.7
- Collection
- Ellis Little Papers: Men and Women of Our Past
- Language of Item
- English
- Copyright Statement
- Copyright status unknown. Responsibility for determining the copyright status and any use rests exclusively with the user.
- Location of Original
- Ellis Little Papers
- Contact
- Waterloo Public LibraryEmail:askus@wpl.ca
Website:
Agency street/mail address:35 Albert Street, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 5E2
- Full Text
