Born in Oneida County, New York, he was a pastor in South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia.

James Harvey DeVotie was born on September 24, 1814, in Oneida County, New York, to Presbyterian parents.

[1] During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, DeVotie served as a chaplain in the Confederate States Army to the Second Regiment of Georgia Volunteers.

[1] DeVotie was the founder of the Alabama Baptist Bible Society and served as its president from 1836 to 1856.

[1] He served as the Secretary of the Domestic and Indian Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1855 to 1856.

[7] DeVotie served as the President of the Board of Trustees of the antebellum Alabama Female Athenaeum in Tuscaloosa.

[1] He also served on the Board of Trustees of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia for twenty-two years.

[1] One of their sons, Noble Leslie DeVotie, was the founder of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and later served as a Baptist Confederate chaplain.