ANCESTOR NO. 22: EDWIN BARLOW DOWNS (1833-1901)

 My grandfather’s grandfather was Edwin Barlow Downs. I found no document during his lifetime that called him that, and he was often called E. B. Downs (in the late 19^th century most records of men used only their initials), but his daughter Eleanor recorded that his middle name was Barlow.[1] Although he lived when photographs were common, I have never seen a picture of him. Almost all of my ancestors lived in the same place for their whole lives, but not Edwin! He crisscrossed the U.S.

Edwin Barlow Downs was born on August 21,1833 in Connecticut, the son of George Downs, a shoemaker and grocer, and his wife Sophia Plumb Downs.[2] He grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where his family lived on George Street from at least 1840 until 1845, later moving to Dow Street in the early 1850s. Edwin had two sisters, Ann Augusta and Harriet Brooks, and three half-brothers, Henry S., George N., and Newton W. Downs, from his father's first marriage.[3]

The earliest record I found for Edwin comes from the 1850 federal census, when he was sixteen years old, living with his parents and sisters, and already working as a carriage trimmer.[4] New Haven was at the time one of the principal centers of the American carriage industry, and the craft of carriage trimming involved fine upholstery work using leather, silk, lace, and ivory. Edwin's future wife Margaret E. Timmons lived at the same address as Edwin — 131 George Street — with her father Archibald Timmons, a silver plater, and her mother Eliza Ford Winans, whose family had originally come from Rahway, New Jersey.[5]

On November 28, 1854, Edwin married Margaret in Rahway. Notices about the marriage were published in newspapers as far afield as Norwich, Connecticut, and Boston, Massachusetts.[6] Margaret’s family had just moved back to Rahway. By the mid-1850s, Edwin's parents, sisters, and half-brothers had all relocated to Durant-Farmington, Cedar County, Iowa, a tiny village in the southeastern corner of the state. His parents and his sister Harriet returned to New Haven soon after. Moving from an industrial city to the country must have been too big a change for them. In early October 1857, Edwin's father George must have known he was dying. On the last day of his life, he wrote his will, naming all his children, and  appointing Edwin as a co-executor along with his brother-in-law Clark Loomis, Harriet’s husband.[7]

Edwin probably lived in New Haven to help administer his father’s estate in 1857 and 1858. By 1859, he had made his way to St. Louis, Missouri. In 1860 he worked there as a “horse car” conductor.[8] He was 26, and surprisingly, he and Margaret still had no children; other couples that had married in 1854 had at least one or two. In June 1860, a newspaper reported that Edwin physically ejected a passenger who had been harassing a woman on his horse car; the man had Edwin arrested, but the complaint was dismissed and the man himself was fined for harassment.[9] The photo below shows a streetcar in 1885; it’s probably similar.

Street Railway, 1885, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Street_Railway_-_DPLA_-_305d5c11de5386e68cd54f0f0a6438fa.jpg: accessed 10 June 2026).

Shortly after that incident, the couple returned to New Jersey. Their first son, Edwin Stanton Downs, was born on 16 September 1860 in Rahway, where Margaret's parents now lived.[10] Edwin Stanton was a prominent abolitionist politician; Edwin and/or Margaret must have admired him enough to give his name to their first child.[11] The name Stanton was not used in our family. A second son, George H., followed on 26 August 1862.[12]

In June 1863, with the Confederate Army pressing into southern Pennsylvania, not far away, the governors of neighboring states called for volunteers. Edwin was among those drafted in New Jersey's Third Congressional District and subsequently joined Chapin's Battery — also called the Light Battery of Rahway or Rahway Light Artillery — commanded by Captain John R. Chapin.[13] Edwin formally enlisted on 7 July 1863, just after the Battle of Gettysburg was fought. His unit, part of the Pennsylvania Emergency Militia, reported to General Couch at Harrisburg and remained in Pennsylvania, sparing Edwin the bloodiest engagements of the war. His brother-in-law William W. Timmons served alongside him. It’s probably fortunate that they were able to avoid the fighting; Capt. Chapin was an artist in Rahway and it’s hard to imagine he had much military experience.[14] State records show that Margaret received subsistence payments while Edwin was away, and that he also served in the battery in January and February 1864.[15]

A son named Archibald was born on 29 April 1864, though he died soon after birth.[16] Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Edwin and his brother-in-law William W. Timmons went into business together as flour, feed, and grain merchants in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.[17] The business probably failed, because the following year, 1867, Edwin was working as a carpenter when a daughter, Lizzie A. Downs, was born on 5 January.[18] By 1868 he had moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he worked as an agent for “India rubber soles.” [shoe soles?][19]

Between 1868 and 1869 the family moved to Cedar County, Iowa, where his family had moved in the mid-1850s. In 1870 Edwin was farming in Durant-Farmington Township, with Margaret and four children: Edwin S. (9), George (7), Elizabeth (3), and a new son, Eugene (1), my grandfather’s father.[20] By 1880, the family had relocated to Creston, Union County, Iowa, some 160 miles to the northwest. Edwin was working as a clerk at a grain elevator, and the household had grown further: a daughter Nellie (born 1873, later called Eleanor Margaret) and a son William Timmons Downs, born 2 January 1876 in Prescott, Iowa had joined the family.[21] A newspaper notice from July 1880 also placed Edwin in Lincoln, Nebraska, suggesting he was already planning another move, this time as a farmer.

These years brought Edwin considerable grief. His sister Ann died shortly after the family arrived in Iowa and was buried in Durant Cemetery.[22] His mother Sophia died in New Haven on 22 January 1882.[23] By that time, the family lived in Bedford, Iowa, near the Missouri and Nebraska borders. In March 1884, Edwin received a telegram when his son George, only 21 years old, died there.  He had been planning to move back east to join Edwin and the family but died suddenly of typhoid fever.[24] Only a couple of months later, Edwin’s half-brother Newton W. Downs, a Civil War veteran who had moved to northeastern Oregon, died by suicide — an event dramatic enough to be reported in a Los Angeles newspaper.[25] Edwin's son Edwin Jr. remained in the Midwest and married in Nebraska in 1888. Despite the distance, the family remained in touch; when I was a teenager, our family visited Edwin Jr.’s daughter Olive Downs in Lincoln, Nebraska when we moved from New Jersey to California.

By 1883, Edwin had returned to Rahway, New Jersey, living in the Third Ward with his four youngest children — Lizzie, Eugene, Ella, and William.[26] He subsequently moved to Newark, where he pursued yet more occupations: by 1888 he was a harness maker, living at 47 Mercer Street; in 1894 he had shifted to working as a clerk; and by 1896 he had become a bookkeeper, a role he held until he retired.[27] There were no calculators then; all calculations were done with paper and pencil. His son-in-law Matthias Ludlow, Lizzie’s husband, a traveling salesman who later ran a large hardware store, lived with him on North 11th Street in 1897.[28] Lizzie’s brother, Eugene, my great-grandfather, married Laura Ludlow, Matthias’ sister in 1891.[29]

In retirement, he and Margaret lived with their son Eugene’s family. Edwin B. Downs died of a stroke on 10 April 1901, at their home at 27 South 10th Street in Newark, New Jersey.[30] He was 67 years old. He was survived by his wife Margaret and his four youngest children. His body was taken to Rahway for burial at Hazelwood Cemetery.

 

---

[1] State of New Jersey, Essex County, death certificate no. 5713 (1901), Edwin B. Downs; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, N.J.

[2] Ibid, for date and place.

[3] Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut, Probate Records, 84: 685-686, George Downs, Will, 8 Oct. 1857; “Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999,” images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9049/images/007627592_00661?pId=321371: accessed 15 June 2026) > image 661-662 of 893.

[4] 1850 United States Federal Census, New Haven County, Connecticut, population schedule, New Haven, sheet 145a, dwelling 413, family 612, Edwin Downs in household of George Downs; “1850 United States Federal Census,” database and images, Ancestry (ancestry.com: accessed 24 May 2024) > Connecticut > New Haven > New Haven > image 81 of 485; from National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication M432, roll 47.

[5] Benham’s New Haven Directory and Annual Advertiser: 1851-52 (New Haven, Ct.: J.H. Benham, 1851), Archibald Timmons, p. 160; “U.S., City Directories, 182-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/593716?pId=8170551: accessed 15 June 2026), image 158 of 246.

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

[7] Hamden, New Haven County, Connecticut, Probate Records, 84: 685-686, George Downs, Will, 8 Oct. 1857; “Connecticut, Wills and Probate Records, 1609-1999,” images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9049/images/007627592_00661?pId=321371: accessed 27 Feb. 2026) > image 661-662 of 893.

[8] 1860 United States Federal Census, St. Louis County, Missouri, population schedule, Ward 10, St. Louis, p. 132, dwelling 774, family 665, [numbers are almost illegible], Edwin B. Downs; “Missouri, 1860 federal census: population schedules,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9BSW-SC2?view=explore: accessed 13 Feb. 2026) > IGN 5170235 > image 352 of 582; from NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 654.

[9] “Local News: The Tables Turned,” The St. Louis Republic (St. Louis, Missouri), 12 June 1860, p. 3, col. 5; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/666872780/: accessed 15 June 2026).

[10] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Genealogical Department, Rahway, Union County, New Jersey, Religious Birth Records, 1857-1867, 16 Sep. 1860, Downs, p. 40; “Rahway, Union, New Jersey (1857-1867) Births or Christenings A-Z,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS3L-4SCH?view=explore: accessed 20 Feb. 2026) > IGN 7832819 > image 44 of 78.  For middle name, Edwin Stanton Downs, untitled death notice, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE), 25 Sep. 1904, p. 6, col. 2; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/314075527/?focus=0.16469093%2C0.58377755%2C0.2937264%2C0.6275986&xid=3355&clipping_id=new: accessed 8 Jun 2026).

[11] “Edwin M. Stanton,” Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edwin-M-Stanton: accessed 15 June 2026).

[12] Taylor County Republican, 27 March 1884, p. 4, col. 6; image, Newspaper Archive (https://taylorcounty.newspaperarchive.com/taylor-county-republican/1884-03-27/page-4_: accessed 31 Mar 2017), death notice for George Downs, birthdate calculated from age at death.

[13] War Department, Provost Marshal General's Bureau, Civil War Enlistment Lists, 3rd Congressional District, N.J., Class No. 1 A-Z Vol 2 of 3, unpaginated, 30 June 1863, line 19, Downs, Edwin B.; "New Jersey, United States records," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-3QYB-4ZVJ?view=explore: accessed 22 Feb. 2026) > IGN (Image Group Number) > 114983513 > image 156 of 435.

[14] 1860 census, Union County, Rahway, N.J., dwelling 650.

[15] Rahway, Union County, New Jersey, Civil War Payment Voucher List, 10 Sep. 1863, New Jersey Volunteers, p. 2, Chapin’s Battery, E. E. [sic] Downs; New Jersey State Archives, reference 1863 : M : 1867. Item 118. Rahway, Union County, New Jersey, Civil War Payment Voucher List, 10 Mar. 1864, New Jersey Volunteers, p. 1-2, Chapin’s Battery, E. B. Downs; New Jersey State Archives, reference 1864 : M : 1635. Item 82.

[16] Union County, New Jersey, Birth Register, 29 April 1864, Archibald Downs, BR:157; “New Jersey, Births and Christenings, 1660-1980,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCBD-9JT: accessed 6 Aug. 2024) > IGN 4210792 > image 170 of 596.

[17] New Jersey State Business Directory (New York, N. Y.: Talbott & Blood, 1866), Downs & Timmons, 115; images, Hathi Trust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101043147865&seq=117&q1=Timmons: accessed 15 June 2026), image 117 of 434.

[18] Union County, New Jersey, Birth Register, 5 Jan. 1867, Lizzie A. Downs, AG:218A; “New Jersey, U.S., Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1711-1878,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62483/: accessed 15 June 2026) > 1848-1867 > Union > image 240 of 596.

[19] Boyd’s Directory of Elizabeth, Rahway and Plainfield…1868-69 (Elizabeth, N.J.: A. & W. H. Boyd, 1868), Edwin B. Downs, 133; “U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/11160388?pId=590499262link: accessed 15 June 2026), image 68 of 194.

[20] 1870 United States Federal Census, Cedar County, Iowa, population schedule, Durant-Farmington Township, p. 8, sheet 220B, dwelling 65, family 66, Edwin B. Downs; “1870 United States Federal Census,” database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7163/: accessed 15 June 2026) image 8 of 10; from NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 380.

[21] “United States Census, 1880,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDLV-1JR: accessed 17 June 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.

[22] Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 15 June 2026), Ann A. Downs Cunningham (1831-June 13, 1870), memorial no. 73771820, Durant Cemetery, Muscatine County, Iowa.

[23]  “Records of births, marriages, and deaths, 1639-1902 ; indexes to births, marriages, and deaths, 1639-1914,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BB-MSRY-Y?i=556&cat=580583: accessed 25 July 2019), image 557 of 740; Sophia Downs, 22 Jan 1882; citing v. 24 Deaths 1879-1882, p. 336, line 3.

[24] “Local News,” The Rahway Advocate (Rahway, N. J.), 22 Mar. 1884, p. 7, col. 1; image, Rahway Public Library (https://www.digifind-it.com/rahway/data/rahway-ad/1884/1884-03-22.pdf#search=%22e.b%20downs%22: accessed 10 Jun. 2026).

[25] “Suicide of a Veteran Soldier,” The Los Angeles Herald, 22 May 1884, p. 2, col. 2; image, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/46534725/: accessed 10 June 2026).

[26] They were still there in 1885: 1885 New Jersey State Census, Union County, New Jersey, Third Ward, Rahway, p. 80, dwelling 479, family 546, Edward [sic] B. Downs; "New Jersey State Census, 1885," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6BL7-5ZM : accessed 19 June 2017); Department of State, Trenton.

[27] Holbrook’s Newark City and Business Directory… (Newark, N.J.: A. M. Holbrook, 1888), Edwin Downs, 357; “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/11100443?pId=583400385: accessed 4 June 2026) >  image 209 of 857.

[28] Holbrook’s Newark City Directory…Year Ending May 1st, 1897 (Newark, N.J.: A. M. Holbrook, 1896), Edwin B. Downs, 389; “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2469/records/595197051?tid=&pid=&queryId=5709eab1-25a3-4dc9-b5be-00ded49268fb&_phsrc=xEb212&_phstart=successSource: accessed 6 June 2026) >  image 204 of 788.

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

[30] State of New Jersey, Essex County, death certificate no. 5713 (1901), Edwin B. Downs; New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, N.J.