EUGENE LOOMIS DOWNS (1869-1929)

One of my maternal great-grandparents was Eugene Loomis Downs. He was among the first generation of his branch of the Downs family in two hundred years to be born outside of the New Haven, Connecticut area. The Downs name was also written as Downes half the time.

We only have one photo of Eugene. In it, he is wearing a light-colored suit and holding a pipe. It appears there was a person standing next to him, who has been cut out of the photo; you can see a striped fabric next to his leg.

Eugene’s parents were Edwin Barlow Downs and Margaret Timmons Downs.[1] They were married in Rahway, New Jersey on November 28, 1854[2] and after a move to St. Louis, Missouri, where Edwin was a car conductor in 1860,[3] they moved to Rahway, Union County, New Jersey, where Margaret’s parents Archibald and Eliza F. and brothers William W. and Daniel L. Timmons lived.[4] Eugene’s older brothers and sister were born in Rahway: Edwin S. Downs on September 16, 1860,[5] George W. Downs, August 26, 1862,[6] Archibald Downs, April 29, 1864,[7] and Elizabeth A., known as Bessie and Lizzie, born January 5, 1867.[8] After their daughter was born, Eugene’s parents moved to Durant, Cedar County, Iowa, where Eugene was born on May 20, 1869.[9] That was in southeastern Iowa. In the 1850s, Edwin’s family had moved to Cedar County,[10] some of them staying, and some returning to New Haven, Connecticut. Margaret’s parents moved back to New Haven by 1870[11] so maybe Edwin and Margaret felt there was no reason to stay in Rahway.

The 1870 census showed that the family was farming in Durant and Archibald was not enumerated;[12] he had probably succumbed to the childhood diseases that were so deadly in those times. Eugene’s parents gave him another sister, Eleanor Margaret, born in 1873.[13] By January 2, 1876, when William Timmons Downs was born, the family had moved to Prescott, Adams County, Iowa,[14] about ninety miles east of Omaha, Nebraska. In 1880 the family lived about nineteen miles east of Prescott, in Creston, the county seat of Union County, where Edwin worked as a clerk in a grain elevator.[15] Likely Eugene went to school in that small town. We know from the notice in a newspaper when Eugene’s brother George died in 1884 near Bedford, Taylor County that the family had lived there before moving back to Rahway about 1883.[16]

Of the children, Lizzie, Eugene, Ella (Eleanor), and William were counted in the 1885 New Jersey state census in Ward 3 of Rahway.[17] Edwin Jr. had decided to stay in the Midwest, settling in Lincoln, Nebraska.[18] In 1885 Eugene turned 16 and it was normal at that time for a boy that age to be considered a young man who worked to support himself.

The Downs family moved to 219 Walnut St. in Newark, and it was there on April 18, 1889, that Eugene’s sister Lizzie A. Downs married Matthias Ludlow Jr.[19] Eugene was the best man, and Matthias’ sister Laura was a bridesmaid.[20] The Ludlows lived in Rahway[21] so it’s possible that the two families had known each other for a long time. Eugene and Laura fell in love and married in Brooklyn at her parents’ house, on July 21, 1891. At that time Eugene was a restaurant proprietor living in Orange, N.J., a few miles west of Newark.[22]

They named their first child Mabel Edna, born on May 30, 1892.[23]Another daughter, Ethel May, was born on June 16, 1894.[24] In 1893 there was a bad recession and that may be when he gave up the restaurant and started working as a salesman, the occupation listed for him in city directories in the 1890s.[25] Their third daughter was Dorothy Eloise, born December 15, 1897.[26] Ethel, Mabel and Edna were among the top twenty most popular names in the US in that decade.[27] The young family lived with his parents Edwin and Margaret at 192 N. 6^th St. in Newark for a few years.[28] Eugene’s sister Eleanor and brother William were still single and also lived with their parents.[29] The household saw some changes when Edwin died on April 10, 1901,[30] William married on Sep. 24, 1902,[31] and Eugene and Laura’s last child, Herbert Eugene Downs, was born on April 2, 1903, at 22 9^th Avenue.[32] 

In 1906 Eugene and his partner William L. Fisher were manufacturers and agents of E.L. Downes & Co. with an establishment at 142 Market St.,[33] a main intersection of Newark. In October of that year, he witnessed the patent application by William King of a cloth cutting machine, assignor being the Simplex Cutting Machine Co.[34] On August 3, 1909, he incorporated the E. L. Downes Co. with an address at 13 Franklin St. and started the business officially with $3,000.[35] The 1910 city directory lists him as one of 32 button manufacturers, at 15 Franklin St.,[36] and the census shows he lived at 16 S. Sixth St., that he was an employer, and the occupation was button man(ufacturer). [37]

In 1911 he was a salesman working at 37 William and living at 88 South 13^th.[38] The business located at 37 William was the Peerless Motor Car Co.[39] Maybe there was too much competition in the button industry, or maybe he decided to follow his bliss – automobiles! They were the new technology of the day. Not only did he sell Peerless automobiles in Newark, but the October 7, 1911 Syracuse, N.Y. Post Standard ran a story that he was expected there that day, on a sixteen state, 6,000 mile itinerary from New York City to Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Louisville. The newspaper described him as the manager of the Agency Department of the Simplex Automobile Company.[40] An announcement was made on the ninth that he would be at Hotel Onondaga, demonstrating the new Simplex 38 horsepower shaft drive model for two days. The company was establishing agencies throughout the country.[41] He stayed at the Hotel Baltimore in Kansas City, Missouri on Dec. 8-10 to exhibit the car.[42] On January 18, 1912, the New York Evening Post announced that he had covered 3,886 miles, touring Albany, Chicago and St. Paul as well as the cities reported in the Syracuse paper. “Downs’s party had to fight heavy snows, rain, sleet, floods, and all sorts of vile weather and road conditions, but the car was in perfect condition when it arrived at the Garden (Automobile Show).”[43] An online photo of a 1912 Simplex 38 HP Double Roadster auctioned recently by Sotheby’s[44] shows there was no shelter from the weather in this car. Eugene must have had a remarkably hardy constitution to withstand this tour during the winter. One wonders if he managed to escape frostbite. This three and a half month extended business trip must have been the origin of the story told by his daughter-in-law Viola Downs that Eugene left the family when his son Herbert was about seven. Eugene and Laura did go on to get divorced, but city directories and the 1915 and 1920 censuses show they were still living together until 1920. 

The price for a 1913 Simplex approached $6,300, a fortune in those days. The auto business must have been lucrative as well as exciting. The owner of the Simplex Company, Herman Broesel, died in 1912 and the company passed through several acquisitions, ceasing production after a few years.[45] This was the same Simplex Company that had the patent for cloth cutting that Eugene witnessed in 1906. The auto business in the New York metro area was booming and Eugene was able to keep his family living in the same house at 88 S. 13^th St. in 1912,[46]1913,[47]1914,[48] and 1915.

In 1915 Eugene participated in auto races held on February 22 by the New Jersey Light Car Club. Twenty-seven cars participated, leaving Newark, and passing through six towns before arriving at Teaneck, where the races started. Eugene was now a Trumbull agent and overturned his car twice practicing the hill climb contest, but won the silver cup for fastest time in class C. That day he won first in the reverse gear race, the flying start hill climb, and standing start hill climb races, and second place in the Class C slow race. Five thousand people had come to see the spectacle.[49] You can see a Trumbull Car ad from 1915, and it is probably the model he drove. $395 sounds cheap today but due to inflation, it is worth $9,442.14 today.[50]

The 1916 directory showed the family living at 167 N 12^th, listing Eugene and all three daughters, since they were now working (teachers or clerks). That year Eugene and business partners W. H. O’Neill and Carl A. Broesel (son of the Simplex owner Herman Broesel) incorporated the Owen Magnetic Car Co. of New Jersey, “manufacture and deal in motor vehicles and flying machines”, with capital of $45,000.[51] Though the family was still living at 167 N. 12^th in 1917, the directory shows no entry for Mabel, because that was the year she married and left home. Additionally, Eugene was now Vice President of the Owen Magnetic Car Co. of New Jersey, at 12 William.[52] You can see online an ad for the car, with his name as VP, from Nov. 26, 1916.[53]

In the 1918 city directory he placed a large advertisement for the E.L. Downs Sales Co., selling not only the Owens cars but also McNaul Tires, “guaranteed 8,000 miles.” They had a telephone, number 4678.[54] For some reason, the E.L. Downs Co. sued the Owen Magnetic Car Co. of New Jersey in Newark District Court. There was no jury and the judge ruled for the E.L. Downs Co. The Owen Co. appealed in the state Supreme Court but that court also ruled for the E.L. Downs Co. on July 26, 1918.[55] When World War I ended the E.L. Downs Sales Co. was one of the dealers listed in an almost full page ad for the Nash Motors Company in the New York Times.[56] They were still in business May 16, 1920, when they were included among the dealers in an advertisement for the Stephens Salient Six engine.[57] In 1920 the census informant (Laura?) reported he was a shipping clerk at an auto factory. The last Newark directory listing for him was in 1922, when he was a salesman working at 35 Halsey St., which was the address of the Mortensen & Humphreys auto dealership, so he must have lost or sold his business in Paterson.[58] Then he disappeared from directory listings until 1929. Did he leave New Jersey? Could he be the Eugene W. Downs, 1927 sales manager in Minneapolis at the Willys Knight automobile company? We know he was divorced,[59] but that was probably after the 1920 census, when they were shown living together. His last occupation and directory listing was working at a delicatessen at 7 ½ Eaton Pl. in Newark in 1929. He lived with his sister Eleanor Housel then, at 115 S. 11^th St. in Newark.[60] Although only sixty years old, he died at her house after a stroke, on July 24, 1929, and was buried at his wife’s family plot at Hazelwood Cemetery in Rahway, N.J.[61]

Eugene’s daughter in law, who became part of the family in 1926, reminisced about him in 1985:

“Grandpa Downs was real suave, real snappy. You see, in those days he wore knickers. He had the best of clothes. $150 suits those days. Can you imagine what $150 in those days? (sic) [It is worth close to $2,700 in 2024.][62] He had them handmade. He was a handsome man, taller than Daddy, about 5’11”… His father…was immaculate.”[63]  She later recalled that he lived in a hotel after the divorce; perhaps that is why there were no more city directory listings for him.

Eugene had nine grandchildren. His daughter Mabel Edna Downs married William Britten (Britt) Riker in 1917 and had one son, Britten Littell Riker, and four daughters, Hazel Riker, Edna Mae Riker, Gladys Riker and Eleanor Riker.[64] (His daughter Ethel married Edward John Downer[65] but they did not have any children). His daughter Dorothy Eloise (Dot) Downs married Britt’s brother Grant Aubrey (Bud) Riker and had Doris and Edward L. Riker.[66] Son Herbert married Viola Bruguier[67] and had two daughters, Suzanne Bruguier Downs and Joyce Diane Downs.[68]

Since this essay was written, DNA has revealed an unexpected event in Eugene’s life. It will be discussed in the next post.

 

 

 

 

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[1] Brooklyn, New York, marriage certificate no. 3096 (1891), Downs-Ludlow; New York City Department of Records, Manhattan, New York.

[2] “Married,” The Examiner (Norwich, Ct.), 15 Dec. 1854, p. 3, col. 3; image, GenealogyBank (https://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 1 Sep. 2021).

[3] "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHZN-HYH:  accessed 30 March 2017), Edwin B Downs, 1860.

[4] "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFHV-9KY:  accessed 30 March 2017), Archibal Timmons, 1860.

[5] "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZWC-TJJ:  accessed 30 March 2017), Downs, 16 Sep 1860; citing RAHWAY, UNION, NEW JERSEY, reference ; FHL microfilm 584,583.

[6] Untitled death notice, Taylor County Republican, 27 March 1884, HTML edition, archived, (https://taylorcounty.newspaperarchive.com/taylor-county-repulican/1884-03-27/page-4: accessed 31 March 2017), col. 6, George Downs. Birth date calculated from age at death given in newspaper.

[7] "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZ3J-677: accessed 31 March 2017), Archibald Downs, 29 Apr 1864; citing Rahway, NJ, reference P. 157 CN 34; FHL microfilm 584,583.

[8] "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZQ2-M3X: accessed 1 April 2017), Lizzie A. Downs, 05 Jan 1867; citing ELIZABETH, UNION, NEW JERSEY, reference; FHL microfilm unknown.

[9] New Jersey State Department of Health, death certificate, no. illegible (1929), Eugene Loomis Downs; N.J. State Bureau of Vital Statistics. Eugene’s sister Eleanor Housel was the informant. Marital Status was “divorced”.

[10] 1856 Iowa state census, Cedar County, population schedule, Farmington township, p. 454-455, dwelling 26, family 26, for George Downs; digital images, “Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925”, database with images, (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 3 April 2017).

[11] "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MN7V-X2P: accessed 3 April 2017), Archibald Timmons in household of George W Miles, Connecticut, United States; citing p. 86, family 691, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,611.

[12] "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDJG-GXY: accessed 3 April 2017), Edwin B Downs, Iowa, United States; citing p. 8, family 66, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,879.

[13] Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com: accessed 3 April 2017), memorial 137974236, Eleanor Margaret Downs Housel (1873-1932), Hazel Wood Cemetery, Rahway, Union County, New Jersey; gravestone photograph by Lise. Stone shows maiden name, husband’s name, and birth and death years.

[14] "Iowa, Delayed Birth Records, 1850-1939," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24Z-KZHY:  accessed 3 April 2017), William Timmons Downs, 02 Jan 1876; citing Prescott, Adams, Iowa, United States, State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines; FHL microfilm .

[15] "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDLV-1JR: accessed 3 April 2017), E B Downs, Creston, Union, Iowa, United States; citing enumeration district ED 222, sheet 241C, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0366; FHL microfilm 1,254,366.

[16] Untitled death notice for George Downs, Taylor County Republican (Bedford, Iowa), 27 March 1884, p. 4, col. 6; digital images, Digital Archives of Taylor County (https://taylorcounty.newspaperarchive.com/taylor-county-republican/1884-03-27/page-4: accessed 3 April 2017)

[17] "New Jersey State Census, 1885," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6BL7-5ZM: accessed 3 Apr 2017), Edward B Downs, Rahway, Ward 03, Union, New Jersey; citing p. 80, Department of State, Trenton; FHL microfilm 888,641.

[18] We visited his daughter Olive Downes in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1970.

[19] “Wedding Bells in Newark”, National Democrat, Rahway, New Jersey, (http://www.digifind-it.com/rahway/data/national-dem/1889/1889-04-226 April 1889: accessed 4 Apr 2017), p. 3, col. 4.

[20] Same as note 19.

[21] See census in Rahway for Ludlow from 1850-1885.

[22] See note 1.

[23] "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZCF-TK3: accessed 5 April 2017), Mabel E. Downs, 30 May 1892; citing Newark, Essex, New Jersey, reference ; FHL microfilm 494,222.

[24] "New Jersey Births and Christenings, 1660-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZCH-RN5: accessed 5 April 2017), Ethel M. Downs, 16 Jun 1894; citing Newark, Essex, New Jersey, reference ; FHL microfilm 494,228.

[25] Holbrook’s Directory, comp., Newark, New Jersey, City Directory (1896), 373, also subsequent years by the same title: (1898) 431, (1899) 414, etc.

[26] "New Jersey, Births, 1670-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCGH-ZW5: accessed 5 April 2017), Dorothy Downs, 15 Dec 1897; citing Newark, Essex, New Jersey, United States, Division of Archives and Record Management, New Jersey Department of State, Trenton.; FHL microfilm 494,237.

[27] Social Security Administration, “Top Names of the 1890s”, databases, Popular Baby Names (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names1890s.html: accessed 7 April 2017).

[28] Holbrook’s, Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, for 1899, 414 (see father Edwin B. Downes listed at same address one line above Eugene.

[29] "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9JW-MTY:  accessed 7 April 2017), Eugene Downs, District 8 Newark city Ward 11, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 113, sheet 19B, family 408, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,966.

[30] Find A Grave, database with images, (https://www.findagrave.com: accessed 7 April 2017), memorial 95038471, Edwin Barlow Downs (1833-1901) Hazel Wood Cemetery, Rahway, Union County, New Jersey; gravestone photograph by Lise.

[31]"New York Marriages, 1686-1980," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F6HC-C3B: accessed 7 April 2017), William Timmons Downes and Emma Katie Walters, 24 Sep 1902; citing reference ; FHL microfilm 1,570,823

[32] New Jersey, birth certificate 17748 (1903), Herbert Eugene Downes; New Jersey State Department of Health and Senior Services, Trenton.

[33] Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1906), 491.

[34] Patents, digital images, (https://www.google.com/patents/US841325: accessed 12 April 2017), William H. King, Cloth-cutting machine, patent file no.841, 325 (1907).

[35] New Jersey Department of State, Corporations of New Jersey: List of Certificates To December 31, 1911,Filed in the Department of State, (Trenton, New Jersey: MacCrellish & Quigley, 1914), p. 204; (https://books.google.com: accessed 7 April 2017).

[36] Newark Directory 1910, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1910), 1281; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1910>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1910, image 512.

[37] "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKTK-S8P : accessed 8 April 2017), Eugene L Downes, Newark Ward 6, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 45, sheet 3B, family 59, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 878; FHL microfilm 1,374,891.

[38] Newark Directory 1911, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1911), 568; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1911>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1911, images 130.

[39] Newark Directory 1911, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1911), 1356; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1911>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1911, images 523.

[40] “Simplex Driver is Here To-Day on Long Journey”, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), 7 October 1911, p. 10, col. 4; image copy, Old Fulton NY Post Cards (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html: accessed 9 April 2017).

[41] “Simplex”, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), 9 October 1911, p. 13, col. 7; image copy, Old Fulton NY Post Cards (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html: accessed 9 April 2017).

[42] “Simplex”, Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Mo.) 8 December 1911, section 2, p. 9, col. 2; image copy, Genealogy Bank (http://www.genealogybank.com: accessed 14 April 2017).

[43] “Covered 8,886 Miles”, New York Evening Post (New York, N.Y.),18 January 1912, p. 10, col. 2; image copy, Old Fulton NY Post Cards (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html: accessed 9 April 2017).

[44]Image (http://www.rmsothebys.com/hf11/hershey/lots/1912-simplex-38-hp-double-roadster/826786: accessed 12 April 2017).

[45] Albert Mroz, American Cars, Trucks and Motorcycles of World War I (Jefferson, North Carolina and London: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2010), 335-336; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com: accessed 12 April 2017).

[46] Unnamed Newark Directory, 1912, 608; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1912>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1912, image 309.

[47] Newark Directory 1913, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1913), 626; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1913>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1913, image 326.

[48] Newark Directory 1914, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1914), 645; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1914>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1914, image 330.

[49] “Three Winners at Teaneck”, article, Carette: America’s First Carette and Cyclecar, Volume 2, (Chicago: Charles P. Root & Co., 1915) 8-9 (March 1915); Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=vag6AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=Downs&f=false: accessed 11 Apr 2017), 169-170.

[50] Inflation Calculator, Value of a Dollar, Dollar Times, database, (http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=200&year=1915:  accessed 11 April 2017).

[51] “New Incorporations: New Jersey Charters”, New York Times, 25 October 1916, p. 13, col. 5; image copy, Old Fulton NY Post Cards (http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html: accessed 10 April 2017).

[52]Newark Directory 1917, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1917), 636; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1917>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1917, image 326.

[53] Newark Transportation, Old Newark, http://newarkbusiness.org/photos/transportation/displayimage.php?pid=653, image, accessed 8 April 2017.

[54] Paterson Directory 1918, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1918), 11; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Paterson>1918>Paterson, New Jersey, City Directory, 1918, image 5.

[55] Atlantic Reporter, Vol. 108, (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company, 1920), 112; Google Books (https://books.google.com: accessed 14 April 2017).

[56] “Having Produced $37,000,000 Worth of Nash Products…”, New York Times, 24 November 1918, p. 9; image copy, (http://www.newspapers.com: accessed 14 April 2017).

[57] “Stephens Salient Six”, The Sun and New York Herald (New York, NY) 16 May 1920, p. 11, col. 2-3; digital images, Old NY Fulton Post Cards by Tom Tryniski (http://www.fultonhistory.com: accessed 14 April 2017).

[58] Newark Directory 1922, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1922), 718; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1922>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1922, image 374; and for Mortensen & Humprhreys, p. 1353, image 692.

[59]See source in note 9.

[60] Newark Directory 1929, (Newark, New Jersey: Price and Lee Company, 1929), 498; “U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995”, New Jersey>Newark>1929>Newark, New Jersey, City Directory, 1929, image 262.

[61]See source in note 9.

[62] US Inflation Calculator, https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/: accessed 11 Sep. 2024.

[63] Viola Bruguier Downs, interview by daughter Suzanne Downs Kirms, March 1988; transcript privately held by this author, 2017.

[64] "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K45P-XMG : accessed 17 April 2017), Mabel Riker in household of William Britten Riker, Ward 3, Bloomfield, Bloomfield Town, Essex, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 7-66, sheet 6B, line 58, family 116, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2330. Notice Laura Downs is enumerated with this family. Enumeration date was 13 April 1940.

[65] Oral tradition. No records available online as of 17 April 2017.

[66] "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4YW-X6P : accessed 17 April 2017), Grant A Riker, Cranford Township, Union, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 20-12, sheet 10A, line 36, family 195, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2385. Laura Downs was also enumerated with this family. My mother told me she would spend three months a year with each of her four children.

[67] State of New Jersey, Certificate and record of marriage, 677 (written), 664 (stamped) (1926), Herbert E. Downs and Viola E. Bruguier, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Trenton.

[68] "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K4Y6-1LF : accessed 17 April 2017), Herbert E Downs, Union Township, Union, New Jersey, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 20-185, sheet 63B, line 65, family 62, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2390.