Counties

Below is a complete listing of all Ohio Historical Markers. To find a detailed marker listing including text, photographs, and locations, click on a county below. Our listing is updated by the markers program as new markers are installed and older markers are reported damaged or missing.

16-43 Henry Kelsey Devereau and “The Spirit of ’76”

Side A: Henry Kelsey Devereux was born into an aristocratic family on October 10, 1859 in Cleveland, Ohio. Ohio artist, Archibald Willard, chose Harry, as he was fondly known, to portray the drummer boy in one of America’s most famous patriotic paintings, “The Spirit of ’76”. At the time Willard approached him to pose, young Harry was a cadet at Brooks Military Academy. He married socialite Mildred French in 1885 and in 1910 they settled in her father’s pretentious country estate in Wickliffe, Ohio (presently Telshe Yeshiva College). His passion for harness racing and for breeding horses culminated in the organization of the American Association of Trotting Horse Breeders and his position as president of the Grand Circuit. The affluent and charitable Wickliffe resident died in 1932 at the age of 72.
Side B: Same
Sponsors: Wickliffe Historical Society, The City of Wickliffe, and The Ohio Historical Society
Address: 28730 Ridge Road, 
Wickliffe, 
OH, 
44092
Location: On the east side of Bishop Rd. Just south of the Bishop Road entrance to the park
Latitude: 41.5944000
Longitude: -81.4795000