Archives West Finding Aid

Henry d’Evers left Germany for America during the Revolution of 1848, married Henriette E. Lampert, and lived in Chicago, Illinois, where his son Arthur H. was born in 1858.

After working several jobs in San Francisco, Arthur, who changed the spelling of his surname to Devers opened his own business of Devers, Koehncke & Co. In 1883 he moved to Portland and joined the Closset firm by purchasing Ameil Closset’s half interest, and became president of Closset & Devers, which specialized in coffee, tea, and spice. The firm was the first in the area to make use of a vacuum coffee can. Devers retired in 1929, selling the interest to A. E. Digman and R. B. Bain.

Devers was active in local businesses, charities and organizations, including the American Red Cross, Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Mutual Life Insurance, and the Lang Syne Society. Devers was interested in water transportation, particularly on the Columbia River, and took part in the National Rivers and Harbors Congress in 1908.

Devers died in 1944. He bequeathed $1 million each to the University of Oregon Medical School and Good Samaritan Hospital. Good Samaritan’s Devers Memorial Eye Clinic is named in his honor.

Devers was married twice, first to Ellen H. (“Nellie”) Gollings in 1885. Nellie died in 1912, and later Devers married Nellie’s sister, Anne. His daughter Mabel Alice married John Philip Plagemann in 1908, and they had two daughters: Jean Elizabeth, who was the 1932 Oregon Women’s Golf Association champion; Patsy (“Petie”), who married Jack R. Brown.

Devers and his family traveled throughout the world, visiting Europe, South America, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, and South Africa.