James Alexander DeVore was born in Lansing, New York, in 1853 to William DeVore (1821-1898) and Lucy Pressey DeVore (1819-1879). In September of 1876 James married his first cousin, Mary Adele Pressey. Adele, as she was called, was born in 1850, in Cayuga County, New York to William Cooper Pressey (1817-1872) and Mary Gallup Austin (1817-1900).

James graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, Cincinnati, Ohio in 1877. After less than a year of medical practice in Auburn, N.Y. he and Adele relocated to Freeport, in Barry County, Michigan in 1878. It was here that their first child Elwin Austin DeVore was born in 1880. A daughter, Ethelyn A, followed in 1884. The family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1887.

Adele and James divorced in 1899 and the following year James married Frances Sanborn (1870-1937). In 1902 he bought 421 Clancy Street and it became the family’s residence as well as the DeVore Hospital and Sanitarium. A respected institution, the hospital grew and additions were added over the years. In the mid 1920s DeVore was in the process of converting the hospital into apartments, as a future source of income for his wife. He died in 1926 before he could complete the project. Frances remained there until her death in 1937. Both James and Frances are buried in Grand Rapids, in Fairplains Cemetery.

After Adele and James divorced, Adele did not remarry. She remained in Grand Rapids until her daughter Ethelyn married William Wallace Odell in 1907. Adele moved with them to Spokane, WA, eventually returning to New England around 1916. She died in Syracuse, New York in 1927 and is buried in Moravia, New York.

Biographical and historical content for the finding aid notes were gathered from the collection itself, The Grand Rapids Press and AncestryLibrary.