James H. DeVotie

James Harvey DeVotie was born on September 24, 1814, in Oneida County, New York, to Presbyterian parents.[1][2] His father died when DeVotie was a child. At the age of seventeen, he moved to Savannah, Georgia, where one of his uncle lived.[1] Because his uncle was a Baptist, DeVotie joined the Baptist Church in 1831, when he was baptized by Reverend Henry O. Wyer in Savannah.[1]

DeVotie studied at the Furman Theological Seminary in South Carolina.[1][2]

DeVotie was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1832.[1] From 1833 to 1835, he served as the minister of the Baptist church in Camden, South Carolina.[1][2] He then served as a Baptist minister in Montgomery, Alabama from 1835 to 1836.[1] He served as the minister of the First Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa from 1836 to 1840.[1][3] He then served as the pastor of Siloam Baptist Church in Marion, Alabama from 1840 to 1854.[1][4][5] He also served as the minister of Hopewell Baptist Church near Marion from 1854 to 1855.[1]

He served at the First Baptist Church of Columbus, Georgia from 1856 to 1870.[1][2] In 1858, he was responsible for paving for the way for the erection of a new church building,[1] which still stands today. The new building cost US$28,000, all of which was paid for by 1860.[1] During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, DeVotie served as a chaplain in the Confederate States Army to the Second Regiment of Georgia Volunteers.[1][2] He also took care of the poor, widows and orphans during the war.[1] He then served as the minister of the Baptist church in Griffin, Georgia from 1870 to 1877.[1]

DeVotie was the founder of the Alabama Baptist Bible Society and served as its president from 1836 to 1856.[6] He was also a co-founder of The Alabama Baptist in 1836.[1] He served as the Secretary of the Domestic and Indian Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1855 to 1856.[1] In 1877, he served on the Home Mission Board and later the Georgia Baptist State Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.[1][7] In this latter role, he attempted to convert former slaves to the Baptist faith.[7]

DeVotie served as the President of the Board of Trustees of the antebellum Alabama Female Athenaeum in Tuscaloosa.[1] He was a co-founder of Howard College in Marion, which later became Samford University near Birmingham.[4] He was the owner of the land upon which Samford was built, which he donated for this purpose.[8][9] He served as the President of the college's Board of Trustees for two years, and as a regular trustee for fifteen years.[1] He also served on the Board of Trustees of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia for twenty-two years.[1] Additionally, he served as the President of the Board of Trustees of the Columbus Public Schools.[1]

DeVotie married Margaret Noble in 1835.[1] They had five children.[1] One of their sons, Noble Leslie DeVotie, was the founder of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and later served as a Baptist Confederate chaplain.[1] After his first wife died in 1872, he married Georgia L. Amoss in 1873.[4]

DeVotie died on February 16, 1891.[2][4] The James H. DeVotie Papers are kept in the William R. Perkins Library at Duke University.[10] The DeVotie Legacy Society at Samford University was founded in 1995.[8]