Andrew Downing was born March 11, 1838 in Preston Prairie, Mt. Carroll Township, Carroll County, Illinois, the first son and second child of Heman & Rachel (Holbrook) Downing He was also the first male child born in Carroll County. (Note: The first female child was his cousin Mary Downing, the child of Nathan and Rachel (Cochran) Downing, who was born in 1837.) He was born in a 12 x 14 foot log cabin, and there he lived the first few months of his life along with his parents and sister born the previous year, his uncle and aunt Nathan and Rachel Downing, E. C. Cochran and his wife and child (probably related to Rachel Cochran) and a boarder named Boyd. Shortly after Andrew’s birth, his father built a house on property he owned in Section 15, Mt. Carroll Township, on the south side of what became the Mt. Carroll - Savanna Highway. (Note: In the early 1900s this was the Howard Petty home.) Samuel Preston Carroll Co History Link to this photo

Andrew Downing grew up in this house, and attended country schools, the last of which was in the winter of 1856. Research does not indicate that he attended any other schools or colleges but he and his family were interested in reading, history, and intellectual pursuits all of their lives.

On his 18th birthday, March 11, 1856 Andrew moved with his parents and siblings to Wyanet, Bureau County, Illinois where he lived as a young man, helping his parents on their farm and working in a store, of which he had a partnership. He was also selling horses, and at the start of the Civil War, sometime between July 13 and September 7, 1861 he went to Kansas to deliver a load of horses, probably to be sold to the military. According to the American Civil War Soldiers Database, Andrew Downing enlisted as a Lieutenant 1st Class on September 3, 1861. Ellen Eliza Preston Downing noted on one of his letters to her husband’s brother, Norman Downing, that the bridges were out in Kansas and he couldn’t get home from this trip, so he enlisted in the 7th Kansas Cavalry there instead of enlisting in an Illinois regiment.

Whether that is exactly true is questionable, because he was soon back in Wyanet enlisting other men from Wyanet for Company D of the 7th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. According to the 7th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry website, D Company was made up mostly of farm boys from Wyanet, Illinois and it was led by Captain Clark S. Merriman of Wyanet, Illinois. The 7th Kansas Cavalry was formed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on October 28, 1861. Its Colonel was Charles R. Jennison and for the first seven months this unit was known as "Jennison’s Regiment." It was later known as Jennison’s Jayhawkers. Andrew Downing remained a Lieutenant throughout the Civil War, not seeking advancement. Civil War Letters written by Andrew Downing

On December 12, 1861, Andrew Downing married Martha J. Gibon, sometimes called Mattie, in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She was born about 1839 in Ohio. She was able to live with him near the battlefields at various times during the Civil War, returning to live in Wyanet when the battles were too arduous. After Andrew Downing mustered out on September 27, 1864 he probably went back to Wyanet at least for a time to gather his belongings.

Charles Irwin, Executive Director of the Boone Historical Society, shows that Andrew Downing came to Boone County, Iowa in 1865 and was present at the selling of the lots for Boone Station, which was later the city of Boone. He purchased a lot and erected the first business in the city of Boone, which was a grocery and mercantile store. In 1866 he was elected Treasurer for the city of Boone, and also in that year he was appointed the first Postmaster of Boone, a position he held for 8 years. In 1867 he was elected Mayor. In 1873 he purchased a half interest in the Boone County Republican, serving as editor and owned this newspaper for 10 years.

Andrew and Martha (Gibon) Downing adopted a son, Charles Sumner Downing, who was apparently born sometime in 1869; the 1880 US Federal Census for District 7 of Boone County, Iowa shows Andrew, Martha J and Sumner Downing and Sumner being 11 years old. It also shows two nieces living with them: Ella M. Dickens, 23 years old, who was born in Illinois and worked as a post office clerk and Jessie L. Dickens, 18 years old, who was born in Minnesota and was in school in 1889. They must have been related to Martha Downing, but I know nothing about them.

Andrew Downing and family apparently moved from Boone, Iowa sometime between 1883-1884 because he does not appear in the Boone Directory of 1885-1886. It was at this time that he became a special agent for the U.S. Government pension department and traveled from one end of the United States to the other. His obituary states that he was charged with the investigation of pension claims and he succeeded in unearthing endless spurious applications. His success in this work won for him recognition from the department heads. He might have continued this career indefinitely except that he developed a chronic bronchial inflammation which made it necessary to move to the Southwest in 1900. This date was corroborated in a letter he wrote to Harvey Loomer Downing in Mount Carroll in 1915.

I have been unable to determine when Martha J Gibon Downing died; perhaps it was in Boone, Iowa or before he went on the road. He married his second wife, Laura Case in 1900 in Topeka, Kansas. Immediately after the wedding, she moved to Washington, DC, where he was working for the Government Pension Office. Laura Case was born August 26, 1843 in Vernon, Ohio. She was educated at Mt. Union College in Alliance, Ohio. She already excelled in poetry; she was chosen to give the Belles Lettres Oration and the faculty requested that she give it in verse. Add photo of Laura Case Downing, from Arizona Republican.

Both Andrew Downing and Laura Case Downing were interested in books all their lives and upon settling in Phoenix, Arizona they took an active interest in a literary organization known as the Friday Club. This group began a small library, and Andrew Downing helped to secure funding to turn this library into a larger Carnegie Library for Phoenix. Laura Case Downing had been a principal of schools for many years and a librarian, according to an article written by Etta Gifford Young in the Arizona Republican at the time of her death. It was stated in her obituary that Laura Case Downing had been in charge of the Arizona traveling libraries. She was also active in the upbuilding of the Woman’s College in Phoenix, the College Club, & Woman’s Relief Corps of the G.A.R.

Andrew Downing apparently wrote poetry all of his adult life. Page 70 of "Jennison’s Jayhawkers: A Civil War Cavalry Regiment And Its Commander" by Stephen Z. Starr states that First Lieutenant Andrew Downing was the only certified poet of the regiment and he was using the pen name of "Curley Q, Esq." I have no other information confirming his use of that pen name. He was regularly publishing his poems in the Arizona Republican newspaper by 1903. He published at least one volume of poetry "The Trumpeters And Other Poems" under his own name in 1897. The publisher was Sherman, French & Company, Boston and the book went to at least three editions; I have a third edition from 1913. It has the seal of the State of Arizona on the cover. He wrote many pioneer themed poems, including The Rose Of The Prairie, The Wheat Harvest, The Ideal Farmer, The Milking Time, The Prairie State, The Pioneers, and The Old Home Farm. Link to the poems.

Andrew Downing also wrote a Civil War poem, Little Phil, which was a tribute to General Philip Sheridan, under whom he had served in Tennessee. He read this poem at the 24th annual encampment of the G.A.R. Of Arizona held in Phoenix April 17 (but I don’t show the year). He was a member of the J.W. Owen Post of the G.A.R. and for several years served as post adjutant. I have a photo of Andrew Downing reading poems at the Illinois Society Picnic held March 8, 1913 in Phoenix, Arizona. He also wrote and published Arizona themed poems. Possibly because of their popularity, he was named Poet Laureate of Arizona, probably before 1915.. A letter he wrote to Harvey Loomer Downing in Mt. Carroll on April 12, 1915 implies he’d just recently been given the title and now various organizations were requesting poems from him. His portrait was hung in the State House in Phoenix, at the request of the Governor of Arizona.

Laura Case Downing was also a published poet and woman of letters. Her book, "Poem Pictures" was written under the name Laura Case Downing and published by Gorham Press, Boston, in 1904. According to her obituary, she died in September 27, 1914, the 50th anniversary of Andrew Downing’s discharge from the Civil War.

Andrew Downing continued writing poems and letters into his last year of life. He wrote a letter to Harvey Loomer Downing October 10, 1917 discussing changes to verses to a song he’d written that was badly published and talked of a 13-week vacation he’d taken to Kansas that summer. He was still living in Phoenix and rented out part of his house there to a family, with whom he boarded. He died December 26, 1917 in the Deaconess Hospital in Phoenix. According to his death certificate, the cause of death was chronic bronchitis and a severe cold. (There are other notations that are hard to read.) He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Phoenix on December 28, 1917 next to his wife Laura Case Downing.