Reverend Benjamin M. Devault and Wife, Mattie Hyath, of East Tennessee

United States Census, 1910, Civil District 2, Knox, Tennessee, ED 103, Sheet 4 B, House no. 613, Dwelling 86, Family 87, Line 98: Benjamin Devault, aged 51, married white head. Birth: 1859, Tennessee. Both parents born in Tennessee. Occupation: Minister. Married once (M1). Married 14 years (est. 1896). Wife is Mattie DeVault (mother of 4 children, 2 living). Children in the household are John Devault, born 1898 in Kentucky; and Frank DeVault, born 1900 in Missouri.

The Reverend Benjamin M. DeVault was born about 1860 in Sullivan County, Tennessee, and is probably related to other DeVaults there. He married Mattie Hyath, of Campbell County, Tennessee (though no marriage record has yet been found; the couple may have married in Kentucky). Mattie had four children. Two of them died. The ones who lived were John DeVault, born 1898 in Kentucky; and Frank DeVault, born 1900 in Missouri. Reverend Devault and his family apparently moved, at least temporarily, from Tennessee to Kentucky, to Missouri; then to Knox County, Tennessee (where they are found in census in 1910). About 1910, apparently after census, they moved to Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, where their son, John, died that year. They probably lived there until at least 1918, when son, Frank, register for the World War I Draft, and listed Benjamin (of the same address) as his nearest relative. In 1923, Benjamin and his wife, Mattie, moved to Winter Park, Orange County, Florida. This move may have been made for Mattie's health, for she died in Orlando about five days later, according to her death record. Benjamin continued to live in Winter Park, dying there in 1925. He and his wife are buried at Palm Cemetery in Winter Park, Orange County, Florida. Both husband and wife are exceedingly hard to find in census, though another Benjamin DeVault, of the same age, is sometimes found in Sullivan County, Tennessee (but he has a different wife and children). There may have been name changes; or it may be that Benjamin, as a minister, travelled from town to town or went on missions. Little else is known about this East Tennessee family.