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.


2015  Marie Hassard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Clara Biography

Golden Nugget Library