EUGENE LOOMIS DOWNS – THE REST OF THE STORY

 Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandfather, Herbert Eugene Downs, and used to ask him to tell me about his life when he was young.

My grandfather told me that his father was Eugene Loomis Downs, and that he was born in Iowa, but moved to New Jersey when he was a teenager. Eugene married Laura Eloise Ludlow, and they had three daughters before my grandfather was born; he was the youngest.[1] My grandfather recalled that his father had a Nash dealership. (Nash was one of the first auto manufacturers). With that information, I was able to find many newspaper articles about Eugene’s career in the auto industry, including racing early cars. However, I found almost nothing about him between early 1920 and his death in 1929.

My grandfather also told me how, when he was sixteen years old, his parents divorced, and he had to drop out of high school to get a job to support his mother and sister. This was in 1920. I thought this was why my grandfather didn’t have a photo of his father with his family.

Well, the story got much stranger this summer when some unsuspected descendants of Eugene got a DNA test on Ancestry.com. As of this writing, three segments of their DNA match mine; they share DNA matches with a descendant of Eugene’s brother William; and they share matches with DNA of two descendants of Eugene’s oldest daughter, all of whom also tested their DNA at Ancestry.

I haven’t found any vital record that proves this relationship, BUT, these DNA results show that Marie Irving Clark, born in 1919 or 1920, was Eugene’s child.[2] Marie’s mother was Josephine F. Clark. The 1919 Paterson, N.J. city directory listing for Josephine F. Clark shows she was a bookkeeper at 201 Paterson St., and the 1920 Paterson directory listing shows she was a secretary for the E. L. Downs Motor Sales Company, located at 201-203 Paterson St.[3]

The family of Marie Clark’s younger half-sister, Joan, also a daughter of Josephine F. Clark, heard the story that Marie’s mother Josephine had an affair with her boss and remembered that his name was Downing.[4] But they were told that Josephine’s mother didn’t want her to marry Eugene. Due to the stigma at that time affecting unwed mothers, Josephine was sent away to have the baby, and Josephine’s mother (also named Josephine) raised Marie as her own child. Marie herself did not learn who her parents were until she was an adult, and she did not pass this story on to her children, so the DNA matches came as a surprise to both their family and ours.

A few years ago, I found lots of newspaper stories about Eugene, as well as his marriage record, death certificate, census records, etc. However, I had found almost nothing about him between 1920 and 1929, the last decade of his life.

Learning about this child of Eugene’s caused me to search again in newspapers and city directories. What I found was unexpected.

We knew that Eugene and Laura were divorced. Although they lived most of their lives in Newark, New Jersey, Eugene got a divorce in Denver, Colorado, on June 19, 1920. Here is an extract of the divorce record:

"Colorado Statewide Divorce Index, 1900-1939," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89WB-Z6QN?cc=2043439&wc=M612-F29%3A348714301: accessed 15 September 2024), Dempsey, Theresa-Falsetta, Raffaelo > image 1535 of 4379; Colorado State Archives, Denver.


That left him free to marry Josephine. But did he marry her? No, he did not. Instead, nine days after the divorce decree, he married another young woman, Jane Holland Conlyn, in New York City, as shown in this marriage certificate.

New York, New York County, New York, Marriage certificate, 19,948 (1920), Eugene L. Downes-Jane Holland Conlyn, 28 June 1920; “Historical Vital Records,” database and images, NYC Department of Records and Information Services (https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/9035996: accessed 15 Sep. 2024).

I have not been able to find any information about a divorce, but Jane remarried in 1923, under her maiden name, not as Jane Downs.[5] In April 1921, Eugene had an automobile accident that sent a five-year-old child to the hospital with a broken collarbone.[6] The month after that, an investor in his business sued him for $4,500, almost half the capital stock.[7] This probably caused him to lose his E.L. Downs Company, since in 1922 the city directory showed him working for another automobile dealer, not his own company.[8] He was not listed in city directories in Newark for the rest of the 1920s. His son Herbert said Eugene lived in a hotel; perhaps he stayed in hotels all those years, which would explain why he was never in the city directory. By the end of his life, he was working at a delicatessen in Newark and living with his sister.[9] He died of a stroke at only sixty years old.[10] He is buried with his first wife in the Ludlow family plot in Hazel Wood Cemetery, near Rahway, N.J., and a stone was placed marking his grave, so I suppose his wife and children forgave him.[11]

 

 


[1] 1910 United States Federal Census, Essex County, New Jersey, population schedule, 6th Ward, Newark, ED 45, sheet 3B, 16 South Sixth Street, dwelling 40, family 59, Herbert E. Downes [sic] in household of Eugene L. Downes; “United States Census, 1910,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRKQ-G3?view=explore: accessed 17 Sep. 2024) > Image Group Number (IGN) 4972848 > image 281 of 1608.

[2] When she applied for a Social Security number in 1937, she gave her birthdate as 29 Sep. 1919: Social Security Administration, “U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 13 September 2024), entry for Marie Irving Clark, July 1937. However, census and ship passenger lists for her point to a 1920 birth year. Her family says she was actually born in May 1920 in Albany, N.Y., but New York state birth indexes do not show her; a birth certificate might not have been created.

[3] Paterson, New Jersey, City Directory, 1920 (Newark, N.J.: The Price & Lee Co., 1920), Josephine F. Clark, 233; “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469: accessed 15 Sep. 2024), image 122 of 505.

[4] For half-sister, Social Security Administration, “U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com: accessed 15 September 2024), entry for Joan Phylis Vanheusden, born 10 Aug. 1931, parents John Vanheusden and Josephine F. Clark.

[5] New York, New York County, New York, Marriage certificate, 26763 (1923), John Blauvelt Ackerson-Jane Holland Conlyn, 30 Aug. 1923; “Historical Vital Records,” database and images, NYC Department of Records and Information Services (https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/view/9111727: accessed 15 Sep. 2024).

[6] “Child Struck by Auto,” The News (Paterson, N.J.), 16 Apr. 1921, p. 2, col. 4; image, Newspapers.com (newspapers.com: accessed 24 Jul. 2024).

[7] “S.R. Kelso Sues Downs Company,” The Morning Call (Paterson, N.J.), 13 May 1921, p. 15, col. 4; image, Newspapers.com (newspapers.com: accessed 29 Jul. 2024).

[8] Newark Directory 1922 (Newark, N.J: The Price & Lee Company, 1922), Eugene L. Downs, 718; “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469: accessed 16 Sep. 2024), image 374 of 776. For residence, it said to inquire at his place of employment, which page 347 shows was “Mortensen & Humphreys Inc auto dlrs.”

[9] Newark Alphabetical Directory 1929 (Newark, N.J.: The Price & Lee Company, 1929), Eugene L. Downs, 498; “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469: accessed 16 Sep. 2024), image 262 of 941. For sister, “Downs,” The Newark Evening News, 26 July 1929, p. 23, col. 1; The Newark Public Library (https://newark.historyarchives.online/: accessed 16 Sep. 2024). “Downs - On Wednesday, July 24, 1929, Eugene Loomis. Funeral services at the home of his sister, Mrs. Harry Housel, 115 South Eleventh street, on Friday evening, July 26, at 8:30 o’clock. Interment at the convenience of the family.” Note: this website’s search engine says the obituary is on p. 27 but it is on p. 23.

[10] New Jersey State Department of Health, Essex County, death certificate, 24 July 1929, Eugene Loomis Downs, unnumbered; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, N.J.

[11] Find A Grave, database with images (https://www.findagrave.com: accessed17 Sep. 2024), memorial # 97989747, Eugene Loomis Downs (May 20, 1869-July 24, 1929), Hazel Wood Cemetery, Colonia, Middlesex County, N.J.; gravestone photograph by George Young.

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