MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MV Produce Warehouse

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Liberty Memorial Bridge

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkins-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

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Artifacts - Miscellanous

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Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

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Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

Joseph McMurray Devine (1861-1938)
Joseph McMurray Devine was born on March 15, 1861 in Wheeling, West Virginia son of Hugh E. and Jane (McMurray) Devine and grandson of John Devine and William and Isabelle McMurray.  As a 12 year old, Devine began gaining business experience delivering the Wheeling Daily Register and helping his father at the landscape and florist business.  After being educated in the schools of Wheeling, Devine graduated from University of West Virginia in 1881. 

A strong supporter of the Republican Party even at a very early age, at age 22 he traveled the state for the presidential campaign.

He moved to Dakota Territory in 1884. He filed on land in what is now LaMoure County, but farmed for only a short time.

Devine was one of the state's earliest educators and promoted a strong education system for its citizens.  In 1886, he was elected LaMoure County Superintendent of Schools, serving for a 2 year term. He became president of the North Dakota State Education Association in 1889, and his work on behalf of education in North Dakota was credited as “potent and far reaching. Much of the state’s general system of education is due to his untiring efforts . . .”

Joseph Devine served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in St. Louis in 1896 and as one of the vice-presidents of the convention. Later that year, he ran for the office of lieutenant governor on the Republian ticket led by former Mandan resident Frank Briggs. While lieutenant governor in 1897, Devine became vice-president of the National Sound Money League, a position through which he wrote several articles on finance that were carried extensively in Eastern papers. Upon Governor Briggs' death on August 9, 1898, he became North Dakota's sixth governor. But Devine served as governor for less than one year since he opted to run again in November 1898 again as the lieutenant governor candidate, now with Frederick Fancher leading the ticket. Although owner of the second shortest tenure as governor in the state’s history, Devine was instrumental in passing several educational reforms during the 1899 legislature.

In November 1900 he was elected North Dakota’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction and served a two year term.  From 1905-1911, he was chairman of the Progressive-Republican Party in North Dakota and temorarily relocated to Minot.  But in 1914, he was appointed Superintendant of the State Training School at Mandan in 1914 (today known as the Youth Correctional Center).  He also served for a term as chairman of the State Normal School Board of Trustees (today known as the State Board of Higher Education).
ND State Reform School c. 1906
Devine served at the State Training School until appointed the state's Commissioner of Immigration in 1923.  Devine was reappointed to that office by two more governors and served until his retirement in 1933.

Devine untiringly promoted his adopted state. In addressing the North Dakota Annual Banquet in Washington, D.C., in February 1928, he said, “We have everything that a prospective home settler seeks or can desire . . . North Dakota leads all states in the production of No. 1 hard wheat, flax, barley, winter rye and fourth in oats . . . North Dakota’s citizenry is as sound as her No. 1 hard wheat and as clean as the air they breathe . . . .” 

Former Governor Devine was among the dignitaries who dedicated the Peace Monument at Cannonball, September 3, 1932.

In 1891, Devine married Ida Frances Holloway at Lake Crystal, Minnesota.  However his wife died and left a daughter.  In 1900, Devine married Mary Bernadine Hanscom from Michigan, and they had three additional children (Douglas-b.1902; Helen-b.1903; and Bernadin-b.1905).  He and his wife Mary raised their family at the home at 708 Second St NW.  The couple eventually relocated to a smaller residence at 117˝ 4th Ave NE and finished out their retirement years there.  They were members of Mandan’s First Presbyterian Church.  Joseph was also a thirty-second-degree Mason, was a member of the fraternal organization known as the Independant Order of Odd Fellows as well as the Knights of Pythias.  

Joseph Devine died of a heart attack on August 31, 1938 in Mandan.  His widow Mary remained in Mandan until her death December 14, 1951.  They are buried beside each other in Union Cemetery, Mandan, ND.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; PO Box 1001; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 03/28
/23    ©  2007-2023  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved