According to Kauffman's 1960 book "The Pennsylvania - Kentucky Rifle", Benjamin DeVore is identified as a gunsmith on the 1840 tax roll of Stonycreek Township, Somerset County.
The DeVore family has been in Somerset County a long time. When I looked at a typed transcript of the 1840 federal census for Stonycreek Township, however, I could not find a Benjamin Devore. All I could find was the household of Benjamin Vore which had one male and one female in the 20-to-30-year age bracket and one male and one female in the under five years age bracket.
The gunsmith Benjamin Vore is said to have procured a farm near New Baltimore, on the old Breastworks Road somewhere in this general timeframe. This farm location sounds as if it was probably in Allegheny Township (formed in 1805), but it is not far from the adjacent Stonycreek Township. More work needs to be done to determine which township Benjamin Vore's farm was in, and whether he is the same individual identified as Benjamin Devore on the 1840 tax roll of Stonycreek Township. The calculated birth of Benjamin Vore is July 13, 1814, which have him turning 26 years old in 1840, which fits with the 20-to-30-year age bracket given in the 1840 census.
A "B. DeVore" appears in Shade Township on the 1860 Walker map of Somerset County. I found a listing for a Benjamin Vore in the manuscript 1860 census records of Shade Township, but did not find any DeVore household listings.
Sellers' 2008 book "American Gunsmiths" reports that the gunsmith Benjamin F. Vore advertised himself as DeVore when he was in Somerset County, and identifies Whisker as the source of the information.
