One of the most interesting men who have resided in the City of Davenport was Willis Downs, as good an example of the self made man, perhaps, as any community could produce. Mr. Downs passed from earth on the eighteenth of January, 1891, and his death marked the closing of a career full of incident and perhaps containing more experiences of an exciting and interesting nature than could be chronicled in the lives of a dozen average men. Born and reared in a family, the members of which secured a livelihood only through the most diligent labor, and in the midst of environments affording slight opportunities for advancement in life, he pursued his way with an earnestness and determination which few men possess, and which when brought into play in any man's life are reasonably certain to eventually crown his efforts with success.
His early life was devoid of incident, save that he was most industrious, and that in all his struggles to obtain a foothold he never wavered from the honest and upright pathway. He maintained a moral courage always, which developed in after years to a remarkable degree, and which signalized him among his associates and comrades as a man of great force. He was one of the “forty-niners," and in California he reaped a harvest in the gold fields which made his after life a comparatively easy one. Previous to his journey to California he worked at day labor on the Connecticut farms. Every dollar he earned up to 1849 he earned by the sweat of his brow.
After his success in California he modestly returned to his old home and his family in Connecticut, and although he had five thousand dollars in gold he resumed a position at his trade in a machine shop at day wages on the day following his return.
He was a man who could stand success and prosperity. There are some men who cannot do this, but Mr. Downs was always cool headed and cautious, and the sudden acquisition of money failed to work any perceptible change in his nature.
During his residence in the City of Davenport he was honored and respected by the citizens for his exemplary life, his kindly offices and his genial disposition. He was not a public man in any sense of the word. He preferred a quiet life, but he was interested in everything that had a tendency to advance Davenport's interest, and he was nearly always ready to take part in any enterprise of a public nature.
Mr. Downs was born in Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut, August 7, 1819. His home was on a farm and the old homestead was known as “West Woods” or “Brushy Hills," situated about midway between West Rock and the Blue Hills. He was the second child in a family of three brothers. His mother died at the age of thirty-two years, and when he was but six years of age. At the age of nine years he left his father's home and began working on neighboring farms for his board. He was able to do chores and odd jobs around the house and proved to be very industrious. During the summer of 1829 he did farm work, and the following winter he was employed in a coal pit burning charcoal. During the year 1830 he worked on a farm for eight months, his wages being two dollars per month. In the winter time he went to school, working during spare hours in order to pay for his board. He was employed by an old-school Congregationalist who would not allow him to indulge in any amusement, such as playing, running or whistling, on Sunday, but who regularly loaded him into a wagon every Sunday morning and carried him off to one of the old-fashioned churches where the services continued during the entire day and where the lad's patience and endurance were taxed to their utmost. Often in after life in speaking of his early religious education he referred to it in a humorous way, saying he had been driven to the church feeling much as a lamb being driven to the slaughter.
The old church-house and the congregation were primitive. The service continued all day Sunday, with an intermission for the noon day lunch, which was always accompanied by the proverbial sanctified wine. The religious experiences of Mr. Downs during this period of his early life were impressed upon him very forcibly, but they had little tendency toward making him any more religious than he would other wise have been. His was naturally an exemplary character and these early experiences may have had something to do with developing the moral force which characterized him in later years.
During 1831 he worked on a farm for three dollars per month, attending school in the winter time and doing chores for his board. In 1832 he worked at the same employment for five dollars per month, and during the winter time worked in a grist and plaster mill, earning just enough to pay his board. During 1833 he drove horses on the tow-path for six dollars per month. This was unusually hard work and for weeks at a time he had no opportunity to remove the clothes from his back. He was only fifteen years old in 1834, but he did a man's work helping to put up hay and taking part in the work done by other harvesters. The winter of that year he spent in chopping wood and doing chores from place to place. It was during 1835 that he learned of a place where he could earn twenty dollars per month, and accordingly he walked to Collins ville, Connecticut-a distance of forty-five miles—for the purpose of securing a position in a powder mill. He was successful in this and immediately walked again to his home, where he packed up his clothes and proceeded to take up his permanent residence in Collinsville, working the greater part of the year at the dangerous business of helping to manufacture powder. In 1836 he was again driving horses, and later drove a team for an axle and spring manufacturing company for ten dollars per month.
Knocked about from pillar to post, doing odd jobs where he could find them, and having no settled purpose in life other than to obtain a mere livelihood did not suit young Downs, and he concluded to learn a trade. This decision he reached in 1837, when he was eighteen years old, and he followed out his determination by apprenticing himself to John Telew of Naugatuck, Connecticut, a machinist. He continued in Mr. Telew's shop until the fourth day of April, 1840, when the proprietor refused to grant him a holiday and he accordingly handed in his time and refused to work any longer. He was out of work for several months; to find a position was almost impossible, and prompted by a desire to see something of the country, as well as being urged by the force of circumstances to seek employment somewhere, he started west by way of the Erie canal, to visit the Mississippi Valley and the country round about. When he reached the central part of New York he discovered that he could return to Albany by stage for the very small sum of twenty-five cents, and could go to New York from Albany for a very small sum additional. The temptation was too great for him , and perhaps being somewhat homesick he turned back and did not visit the West for some years. Mr. Downs often spoke of this trip and laughed about the small stage fare. It was at a time when the stage lines attempted to cut rates with the New York Central Railroad, with the result, as everybody knows, that the cut rates had no effect whatever upon the railroad, but ended with dire results for the stage companies.
Young Downs bought a team and a canal boat during the latter part of 1841. He went in debt for this outfit in the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, and continued during 1841 and 1842 in the attempt to make money out of his new venture. However, he has it marked down in his diary that these years were anything but successful ones with him. He worked very hard, traveling sometimes fifteen to twenty five miles back into the country, in winter, with wagon-loads of oysters in the shell which he had bought for fifty cents per bushel and which he was compelled to sell for eighty cents per bushel. He was cheated out of a great deal of money during these trips and as a result his assets figured up vastly less than his liabilities at the end of a couple of years. He left the canal and teaming business in the fall of 1842 in debt and in disgust. He owed one hundred and fifty dollars, and he tied the old boat to the bank, where she sank, and where thirty-six years afterward -a man of large wealth- he stood and looked at the decaying hull.
On the first of January, 1843, he went to work at his trade, earning one dollar and thirty-seven and a half cents per day. By the exercise of economy, industry and good judgment he was out of debt in a year and began his struggles free-footed in Birmingham, Connecticut, in 1844, where he was employed by D. Howe, the first manufacturer of solid-headed pins. During this year he laid by one hundred and twenty five dollars. The company for which he was working failed, however, and he went to New York, where he worked a while in novelty shops and then returned to Connecticut, where he found employment in Johnson's machine shop in the town of Westville. In this establish ment he continued during the years 1846 and 1847. In the fall of the latter year he mastered an idea which eventually proved one of great value, and was the foundation of his later great success.
The old style of making hollow augers for cutting the round tenons on wagon and carriage spokes was to forge them of wrought iron and weld the knives or cutters on permanently. These were costly and could not be renewed or repaired. Eventually a resident of Massa chusetts invented the now well-known cast iron hollow auger with removable and adjustable steel knives. No firm seemed to be able at that time to turn them out cheaply and quickly, and wagon manufacturers were wanting them badly. The demand was, therefore, much greater than the supply, and, as the inventor had neglected to patent his device, the invention naturally became public property. Mr. Downs took advantage of this. He went to an auger and bit manufactory of Hamden, Connecticut, and contracted to manufacture one thousand eight hundred of the hollow augers for the sum of one thousand two hundred dollars, the job to be completed within four and one-half months. Mr. Downs had absolutely nothing when he signed the contract, but he managed to secure credit at some stores, where he bought tools and succeeded in delivering an installment of the augers, for which he received his money, paid his small debts, got more credit and increased the capacity of his shops. He was not only able to complete the contract with this company, but he sold many of the augers to outside parties and accumulated quite a good deal of money thereby. It was a hard struggle, however, for even the company with which he had made the contract, wealthy though it was, cheated him out of part of his just dues, and he was unable financially to obtain redress in the courts. He toiled on with determination and persever ance, and was finally rewarded, as have been so many other men who pursued a purpose in life with all the force within their natures. By rapidly pushing the work after he had been in it for some five or six months he was enabled to pay all his debts and by the end of one year to lay his hands on two thousand five hundred dollars clear profit. So good a business, however, could not hold a monopoly long and soon there were several competing firms, so that in the summer of 1848 Mr. Downs moved to Hamden, Connecticut, and went into partnership with Brockett & Tuttle in the iron axle business. The men with whom he joined in this venture were not men of experience and they were entirely too cautious to suit him, but he remained in the partnership for a year or so, when he joined a party bound for California to take part in the memorable "gold hunt” of 1849, when many men became wealthy, and many lost not only what they had accumulated, but got deeply into debt. The news that gold had been discovered in California was carried east with lightning rapidity for those times, and the Connecticut towns contributed very largely to the squads of men who pressed westward in search of the valuable ore. It was only a few days after the news reached the East that Willis Downs and some sixty other men had associated themselves together as a joint stock company to purchase and load a vessel to make the long, tedious voyage around Cape Horn to the western coast of North America. The vessel which they purchased was the bark "Anna Reynolds.” It was very old and really unfit for the trip and the cargo of provisions was wretchedly poor. The inconveniences and dangers of the vessel and the hardships resulting from the necessity of eating poor victuals were lost sight of by all the company in the anxiety to get into the rich territory beyond the Rocky Mountains.
The party sailed March 12, 1849, from New Haven, touched at Stonington, and finally on the sixteenth left the Atlantic Coast during a regular northeastern storm, and sailed directly toward the coast of Europe in order to get into the trade winds. They were mostly green landsmen and knew but little of seafaring life, and the ocean expe riences were rather hard with most of them. Their captain proved to be one of the most unprincipled of men, being very ugly to his crew and badly addicted to drink and other vices.
The vessel entered the Gulf Stream March 19 and not until the twenty-first of April did the party see land again. It was then that the sight of the Cape Verd Islands greeted them. On the twenty-second of April they entered Botany bay at the island of St. Vincent, where they remained for seventeen days. They left the island on May 7 and on the twenty-first they crossed the line, leaving behind the Great Dipper and the North Star, and turned their attention to the Southern Cross. The trip was continued around the Horn and up the western coast of South America on to San Francisco, which latter place was reached on the twenty-second of November. It had been an eventful tour and one of extreme interest to the travelers. Mr. Downs was a very keen observer and wrote a great deal during the trip concerning the scores and scores of sights which are of interest to travelers around the Horn.
Mr. Downs has recorded in his diary that upon reaching land once more he had but five cents in his pocket. He had been near bankruptcy during the greater part of the trip. The five-cent piece was one made in 1844, and one which he kept during his lifetime as a souvenir of the dreary voyage he made and the great successes which he made later in the gold fields of California. This five-cent piece is now in the possession of his son, F. W. Downs. He had a four hundred dollar interest in the ship and its cargo and offered to give the company his entire interest if they would release him and allow him to take his tools and clothing and shift for himself, but the other members refused to let him go. The party staid fifty-six days in San Francisco, viewing the wonders of the tents and shanties. They found that board there cost from sixteen dollars to twenty-five dollars per week; flour from thirty-two dollars to fifty dollars per barrel, and everything else in proportion.
On the twenty-eighth of November the party sailed for Sacramento. On December 17 they settled in a body of woods forty miles below Sacramento and unloaded their vessel at a camp which they named New Haven. Mr. Downs recorded that the hardships endured by the members of this little company were something terrible. Sickness became epidemic and they soon left there, as a number of their party had died within a few weeks. Mr. Downs himself was very ill, and added to the miseries of his sickness was the thought that he might never reach home again, and that he had been very foolish in under taking the trip. He recovered sufficiently, however, to go to work, and on April 2, 1850, he started with a party of men for the mining regions. He was still weak, but proposed to go or die in the attempt. The first night they hung hammocks under the wagons, but it rained and snowed and they were compelled to crawl under an upturned tree. In spite of this kind of life Mr. Downs' health rapidly improved and he was soon able to work. On the fifth of April a number of men, of whom he was one, reached Sutter's mill, near which gold was first discovered.
On the fourteenth of April Mr. Downs was prospecting and struck his first gold — the “find” amounting in value to fifty cents.
During the next few days he made from ten dollars to fifteen dollars per day. His comrades, especially a man named Ford, were particularly anxious after a few days' work to leave that section and seek more profitable diggings, but Mr. Downs was determined to remain and his strength of will governed the others to such an extent that they all remained and worked with him. However, their plan of work did not suit him, and he started out to stake out his own claim. He made an agreement with David Ford on May 29 to go into partnership on their daily gold find. As a result on the first day of their partnership they divided up about seventy- five dollars. On the thirtieth of May Ford dug out seven dollars and seventy-two cents and Downs unearthed one hundred and sixty-two dollars and seventy-nine cents. They continued to work together with great success for some time, making anywhere from six teen dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars per day. They worked the claims until June 9, when they had each cleared several hundred dollars, and the claim was practically worked up. From there they went to Georgetown and for a time Mr. Downs engaged in other pursuits, receiving sixteen dollars per day as wages.
As showing the character of the man it is in place to state that upon leaving Georgetown for Yuba he stopped and took care of a sick man, nursing him back to health, after which he returned again to Georgetown. It was not every man who in those times of excitement and turmoil would take the trouble to care for a sick man for several weeks when all around him opportunities for making a fortune quickly were being taken up rapidly.
The best gold mines about Georgetown were found in the bed of a creek, part of which had been covered by glacial action, and all of the available claims were taken and were being worked when Downs and his comrades arrived there. However, they staked out a claim away back from the main diggings and sunk a shaft, hoping to strike the old creek bed. Old miners called them "Green Yankees," but they dug away with great perseverance. Mr. Downs was compelled to work at various jobs in order to defray his share of the expenses. He even bought a mule and peddled meat, making twenty-five dollars per day. Then he bought five tons of hay from some farmers, and after paying one hundred dollars per ton to have it hauled to Georgetown, sold it so that he cleared about four hundred dollars per ton on it.
At last at the depth of seventy-six feet the "Green Yankees" "struck it rich," and the mine was a great success. From fifty pans taken from the creek bed they washed out one thousand one hundred and twenty dollars. They continued to work the mine until they had each cleared four thousand six hundred dollars and then sold it out. Mr. Downs once said that he afterward heard that the mine fell into the hands of a Swede, who made a quarter of a million dollars out of it.
After selling his gold mine Mr. Downs made up his mind to return to his old home. He and his partners were compelled to exercise great caution in removing the large quantities of gold they had secured to Sacramento and San Francisco. They feared the lawless element of the communities, but were successful in escaping without loss of their lives or treasures. They took passage during the latter part of December, 1850, on the bark “Drummond” for their homeward trip. It was, to a certain extent, an eventful trip. Mr. Downs was not then accompanied by the large party who had gone west with him a couple of years before. The party had broken up into little squads and there were only a few of the original ones on the “Drummond.” They reached New York on March 8, 1851, and two days later Mr. Downs arrived at New Haven, having been absent two years lacking two days, and having cleared in that length of time the snug sum of five thousand dollars.
He had had some remarkable experiences. Circumstances and good fortune had favored him to such an extent that he had arisen from the position of one compelled to work out by daily labor his salary to that of a man of sufficient means for his comfortable support. However, regardless of his good fortune he went to work at his trade upon the day after his arrival home from California. He resumed a position with the Axle and Spring Manufacturing Company of Hamden, it being the same old firm with which he had been connected some years previously. He remained there almost a year and in the spring of 1852 removed to Lafayette, Indiana, where he bought a home and engaged in the manufacture of bedsteads and other light furniture, hiring the power to run his lathes. In the fall of 1853 he clerked in an auction store, and in the spring of 1854 formed a partnership in the peddling business with Mr. G. Hickman. They sold clothing, dry goods and notions in different parts of Illinois. In 1855 Mr. Downs left Indiana and on the seventeenth day of March arrived at Iowa City, Iowa, where he engaged in the livery business.
He sold out his livery business in 1865, and in December of that year visited the Southern States. He remained in Memphis, Tennessee, for several weeks and then visited New Orleans, Brazier City and other places, after which he took passage on an ocean steamer bound for New York. In the spring of 1866 he visited Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, and arrived home again some time in June.
He located in the City of Davenport, Iowa, on the twenty-seventh day of July, 1866, and purchased a home here at that time which is one of the handsomest locations in the city, overlooking the majestic Mississippi and the Rock Island Arsenal. In January, 1867, Mr. Downs engaged in the undertaking business under the firm name of Downs & Shobert, but the business did not pay and Mr. Downs sold out. He had loaned money and taken security on the steamer “Iowa City,” which was sunk at the mouth of the Wapsie near Princeton, on May 8, 1868, and he was compelled to raise and repair her, after which she ran on the river until 1870, when he sold her and saved himself from loss.
In 1875 he purchased the Forrest block on Third and Perry Streets and put it in good repair for a first-class hotel. This building is now known as the Hotel Downs.
In March, 1876, by invitation of some southern gentlemen of prominence, Mr. Downs joined a party of six hundred Northerners and visited fourteen States, receiving royal treatment from the hospitable Southerners all along the route. They visited Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, St. Augustine and other prominent cities.
Mr. Downs was married on April 1, 1845, in the City of New Haven, Connecticut, to Miss Martha L. Sperry. To this union were born two children: Fordyce W., born December 31, 1845, and now residing in Davenport, the custodian of his father's property; Forest F., born in Iowa City, Iowa, October 8, 1856, and now deceased. Mrs. Downs survives her husband and is living with her son, F. W., at the home which Mr. Downs purchased in 1866. She is sixty-eight years of age.
BIOGRAPHIES