The Downer Family Pioneer

Frances Downer, son of John Downer and his second wife, was born in 1790 at Lilesville, Anson County, North Carolina and died there October 1871.

In 1810, he married Tabitha Husbands of Rockingham, Richmond County, North Carolina. Frances and Tabitha had nine children, all born in Anson County, North Carolina. Their oldest son John, 1815-1857, married Martha May of Lilesville and moved to DeKalb County, Alabama in1840.

Six children were born to John Downer and Martha May. They were: Benjamin Franklin 1842-1887, married to Fanny May Dobbs1839-1915; William Alexander 1844-1921, married to his first wife Annah Ingram; Alabama 1858, married to George Washington Dobbs 1857-1927; John Lee 1859-1903, married to Addie May Chitwood 1859-1906.

In January of 1862 Alexander and Benjamin Franklin, enlisted in Captain Harelson's DeKalb William Alexander Downer Rifles, Company B, 49th Alabama Infantry Regiment. William Alexander was captured in June 1864 and spent the remainder of the war as a prisoner.

Today, progeny of John Downer and Martha May are well distributed throughout DeKalb County, Alabama and the South. In 1870, William Alexander Downer, his first wife Annah Ingram, and three children, James Calvin, Mary Elizabeth, and Annie left DeKalb County and settled in Greenbrier, Faulkner County, Arkansas.

His two children, James Calvin and Annie, and his wife, Annah died there. In 1896, he moved with his second wife, Eliza Brown Guthrie, and five children to Hill County, Texas and later to Wheeler County, Texas where he died in 1921. William Alexander Downer is buried in Texola, Beckham County, Oklahoma.