People Page

Not a deleted record

No images uploaded for this person yet

People Names and Dates


Full Name	Franklin Devereaux
AKA Full Name
People ID	763234
Title
First Name	Franklin
AKA First Name
Nickname	Frank
Middle Name
AKA Middle
Patronymic/Matronymic
Priorsurnames
Surname	Devereaux
AKA Surname
Father's Surname	Devereaux
Mother's Surname	Ellis
Suffix
Gender	Male
Full Birth Date If Known
Birth Year	1830
Birth Month	10
Birth Day
Full Death Date If Known	1883-08-25
Death Year	1883
Death Month	8
Death Day	25

Events, Dates and Places

Event	Date	Geo Top Level	Geo 2nd Level	Geo 3rd Level	Geo 4th Level	Notes
Birth	1830/10	USA	Pennsylvania	Warren	Sugar Grove
Death	1883/08/25	USA	Michigan	Cheboygan	Aloha Township
Obituary Published	1883/09/20	USA	Kansas	Dickinson	Abilene	Abilene Reflector, Abilene Kansas.
Marker Added or Replaced	1920	USA	Michigan	Cheboygan	Aloha Township	His government application for a grave marker from 6 January 1920 shows his death date as 25 August 1883, not 4 September 1883.

Relationships

No relationships added for this person yet

Relationship	Related To	Relative's People ID	Relative's Birth Year	Relative's Death Year	Other Date (typically Marriage Date)

Military Service

Rank If Known Or Highest Or Final Rank	Branch of Service	Beginning Date if Known	End Date if Known
Private	US Army

Military Actions Served During


American Civil War

Interment, Inurnment or Memorialization Information


Cemetery	Devereaux Grave
Address	MI-33 south of Slater Road and north of Merchant Road
City/Town	Aloha Township
County/District	Cheboygan
State/Province	Michigan
Postal/Zip Code	49721
Country/Principality	USA
Section




Organization
Property Type
Has Marker	Yes
No Marker
Is Cenotaph
GPS/LatLong Coordinates
End of Interment Record	If there are additional interments or cenotaphs for this person they will appear below

Inscription Information


Franklin Devereaux Co. I 25 Mich. Inf.

Biographical or other information about the person

https://mills-sfv.com/Genealogy/GLS/People/Text/763234.txt

It's kind of a running joke on the internet that many American men think they can fight a bear in the wild and win.

This was apparently a case where something like that happened, although it is unlikely that it happened by design. The best guess as to what actually happened is that Frank Devereaux and a black bear surprised each other in a berry patch in northern Michigan.

Devereaux, a Civil War veteran, was apparently armed with a gun and wounded the bear. The bear, although mortally wounded, got close enough to Devereaux to land a blow on his head, fracturing his skull. That wound also proved fatal to the man. The nearest actual town was miles away, and given the medicine of the time, it's possible that nothing could have been done to save his life anyway.

When someone eventually found the scene, they found the bodies of both Devereaux and the bear near each other. This was in August or September 1883 (not 1884 as some sources list, as one can tell from reading the notice in the Abilene Kansas newspaper from September 1883, which is a news item rather than an obituary). If it was in August it means the death date on Devereaux's marker must be the date he was legally noted as being deceased, not the date he actually died.

I have seen no information on what became of the remains of the bear.

No keywords added for this person


Small notes (field in database 50 characters max)
Family Search ID	KPM9-VC2
Find A Grave 1	269824277
Famous per Find A Grave
Famous per Consensus
Find A Grave 2
Find A Grave 3
BillionGraves Record ID
Other websites	https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84029385/1883-09-20/ed-1/seq-2/
Record Entry Date	2025-01-24 19:02:27
Record Last Edit Date	2025-01-27 10:40:07

Contact Us

We're not set up yet to do direct edits on these records through the web interface. To contact us about this person (re: add or change information or for questions) or send photos or request a photo, click on the link below and modify the email address as instructed, then include your information or questions or attach a photo or photos to the email. If you wish to upload more than a few photos please contact us to make other arrangements to upload your photos. Also, depending on the size and quantity of images you attach to the email, some email servers may bounce your email as many email services limit total attachments per individual email to between 10 mbs and 50 mbs.

Also, do not change the Subject line in the email, it should prepopulate with the correct people ID for the page you are on, if the subject line is changed it may make it impossible for us to know what person you are emailing about.

Send us photos, request a photo, send updates or corrections

For information on contacting us or emailing or requesting photos, click here.


Main Page	Search Cemeteries	Search People	Search Events	Search Places	Logout