He was born in
New York City in 1854. In 1878, at age 24, he was hired as a patrolman. On September 16, 1881, he was made a roundsman, and on May 28, 1884, he was promoted to a sergeant. On December 30, 1891, after 13 years on the force, he was promoted to captain. As a police captain he once told his men, "They tell me there's a lot of grafting going on in this precinct. They tell me that you fellows are the fiercest ever on graft. Now that's going to stop! If there's any grafting to be done, I'll do it. Leave it to me." In 1901, the Police Department was re-organized again, and has been headed ever since by a
Police Commissioner. The first Commissioner
Michael C. Murphy appointed Devery as his Deputy Commissioner. Both Murphy and Devery went out of office on January 1, 1902, when
Seth Low became Mayor of New York. Later, with
Frank J. Farrell, he bought the
Baltimore, Maryland American League baseball team and moved it to New York and renamed it the
Highlanders. The team almost won the American League pennant in 1904, but otherwise had poor records during the Farrell-Devery ownership era. For $300K, they sold the team in 1915 to
Jacob Ruppert Jr. and
Tillinghast L' Hommedieu Huston. He died on June 20, 1919, at 4:15 p.m. of
apoplexy in
Far Rockaway, New York. ==See also==