John C. Devine

John C. Devine was born on February 29, 1876, in Florence, Arizona Territory.[3] He attended Florence schools, and then went to St. Mary's College in Oakland, California from 1892 to 1894, where he studied mining and civil engineering.[3][4] He was a charter member of the Arizona Pioneer Society.[5] Devine was a mining engineer. He was the foreman of the Troy Arizona Copper Company from 1901 to 1906.[3]

Devine married Grace E. Adcock of Marysville, Missouri in 1905 in Los Angeles. The couple had five children: four sons, Milford, John, Eugene, and Charles; and one daughter, Virginia.[3][5] They had another child, who died in infancy in November 1912.[6] In the early 1900s he was deputy sheriff in Florence, and in 1901 he fatally shot a man, Robert Hatfield, who was resisting arrest for spousal abuse. Hatfield was part of the notorious Hatfield clan.[7][8] In 1906 he became the superintendent of the Ray Consolidated Copper Company.[3][5]

He resigned from Ray Consolidated in 1916, in order to take over as president of the Pinal Development Company.[9] In August 1916 Devine challenged the incumbent Democrat, Charles E. MacMillin, in the primary for state senator from Pinal County, who he soundly defeated 719 to 427.[10][11] He defeated the Republican candidate, Frank H. Swenson, in the November general election.[12][13]

At some point, he became general manager of the White Metal Company, which he managed until 1926. He was a Mason, and attained the 32nd Degree.[3][5] He ran for, and won, re-election in 1918.[14][15] Devine moved to Tucson in 1922, in order for his children to attend school.[16] He served as jailer under Sheriff John F. Belton, being appointed in 1933. He remained in the post until he unexpectedly resigned in August 1936.[5][17] In 1936 he was appointed undersheriff by Sheriff Ed F. Echols, which took effect in January 1937[5][18] Devine died on March 21, 1940. He had been ill for approximately one year, although he continued to work in his county undersheriff duties right up until his death.[3]