Santa Clara County
Biographies
MRS.
DELIA M. DOWNING
MRS. DELIA M. DOWNING.
This lady, who is numbered among the esteemed residents of San Jose, in the
Santa Clara valley, has shown rare capabilities in the management of the fine fruit
ranch upon which she resides, having been left a widow by the death of her
husband in 1892. Although California has been her home for the past
twenty-seven years, she claims Muscatine, Iowa, as her birthplace, and is the
youngest in a family of eight children born to Samuel and Julia (Fisher) Allyn, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. Some time after their marriage, these parents followed a
westward course, settling first in Ohio, then in Indiana and later in Iowa.
Locating on a farm near Muscatine, the father followed farm pursuits there for
a number of years, subsequently removing to Newark, Knox county, Mo., and it
was there that both he and his wife died some time afterward. Of their
children, four were sons and four were daughters.
The scholastic
training of Mrs. Downing was received in the common schools of Iowa and
Missouri, and she remained at home until her marriage. In 1870 she was united
in marriage with Lorenzo Dow Downing, born in the state of Missouri,
and during the same year the young people went to Nevada, settling in the
vicinity of Humboldt Mills in the Thousand Spring valley. This continued to be
their home until 1877, for at that date they sought a new and better location
in California. Purchasing a forty acre fruit farm in the Santa Clara valley,
Mr. Downing planted it with fruit trees and here he spent the remaining
years of his life, devoting his attention solely to fruit culture. He prospered
and in time acquired more land by additional purchases, owning at the time of
his death sixty-nine acres all in fruit. At his death in 1892, Santa Clara
county lost one of her leading horticulturists. A short time prior to his
demise he had built the beautiful modern residence upon the ranch and this is
still occupied by Mrs. Downing. Although he could not be termed an active
politician, he was a Republican and took a live interest in the elections. Four
children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Downing. Of these, Lorenzo Dow, the
eldest, is a butcher by trade and resides in Campbell; Hardy is in Australia;
Lace assists on the home ranch; and Burton is a resident of Reno, Nev.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
04 May 2015.
ญญญญSource: History of the State of
California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof.
J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 559. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago,
1904.
ฉ 2015 Marie
Hassard.