THE GRAY/DOWN(E)S LINE:

THE GRAY/DOWN(E)S LINE:

SARAH RUTH DELANO GRAY AND CHARLES HENRY DOWNES

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Sarah Ruth Delano Gray and Charles Henry Downes were the parents of my maternal grandmother, Hazel Delano Downes Ackley. It is Sarah's mother, Henrietta Smith Delano Gray (direct descendant of Philippe DeLaNoye of Plymouth Colony), who bears such a remarkable resemblance to her granddaughter, Hazel (my grandmother). Henrietta's Book of Psalms (a tiny, well-worn volume, with her name and a Greenwich, Connecticut, address handwritten inside it) indicates she perhaps felt the weight of the world heavily on her shoulders. Two inspirational poems are found inside it, one ("Out of the Depths," by Carrie A. Breese) glued to the front cover, and the other ("Climbing Up the Stairs," no author shown) glued to the back.

There is a photograph of Sarah's father, Joseph Alexander Gray (perhaps known as "Alexander," at least within the family; only recently has it been discovered that his first name was actually "Joseph"). He appears to be "Black Irish," with dark (perhaps black) hair and blue eyes. The inscription on the back of the picture identifies him as "Father Gray," a term indicating respect, in a somewhat formal way. Joseph Alexander Gray turns out to be somewhat of a "man of mystery." Although the family tradition was that he was born in Croghan, County Roscommon, Ireland (I assumed he came to the United States at some point previous to his 1856 marriage to Henrietta), I recently found him on the census for Holland, Ottawa County, Michigan, and his birth place is given (presumably by him) as "New York." At first, I thought perhaps that was the reason I have not yet been able to find him in any immigration records.

I also have some small snapshots of Joseph Alexander Gray, taken when he appears to be a much older man. Rather than a dark beard and mustache, this man appears to have snow white facial hair. The light eyes of the earlier picture are still evident, although they seem perhaps a little faded with time. One of these later pictures is of particular interest, for it is inscribed "a Snap Shot of me when I was Building my voteing [sic] machine." Indeed, the picture depicts this older, white-haired gentleman leaning against a large box-like contraption, with the words "Honest John" written across the top. Was Joseph an inventor, perhaps building one of the first voting machines? Could be...but we may never know.

Despite his aged appearance in these snapshots (in one he even has what looks like a cane in one hand), it would seem that Joseph, born in 1829, actually never got much older than 40 or 50 years old. The entries for the family in various federal census records, taken every ten years, perhaps provide some details of the story. On that same 1860 census for Michigan, on which Joseph is listed as "born in New York," he also gives his occupation as "carpenter." The only child listed with the family at that time was son, James, born in 1858 (the couple's first child, a daughter named Eliza Jane, was born in 1857 and had died by 1858). By 1870, the Gray family was living in Norwalk, Connecticut, but Joseph is not listed with them. That census did not ask a question which defined marital status, but by 1880, the first census in which "civil condition" was indicated for each person listed, Henrietta is definitely listed as "widowed." Although I have yet to find an official death record for Joseph, we can assume that he was thus dead by 1880, if not by 1870. (Interestingly, all census records, except for that 1860 Michigan one, give Joseph's place of birth as "Ireland." Guess I'll keep looking for that immigration record!)

Since he apparently never got very old chronologically, his extremely aged appearance in those snapshots becomes quite curious. Did Joseph have some sort of debilitating disease (such as tuberculosis, perhaps) that caused him to age rapidly? In fact, one of the photos is labeled "at the Hot Springs." Perhaps Joseph did contract tuberculosis and spent some time at some sort of spa or "Hot Springs" for a "rest cure," perhaps ca. 1870 when he was not listed with his family on the census. This scenario actually brings to mind another, more recent, situation in my family. My maternal grandfather, Frederick Roberts Ackley, had tuberculosis in the 1940s, and did spend several years away from his family as a result, being treated for the disease (which then, before the widespread use of antibiotics, involved the pretty barbarous process of rib removal in order to also enable removal of the afflicted lung...). This arduous treatment, and subsequent lengthy recuperation, all took place at a sanitarium out on Long Island. Indeed, family members have recalled the reaction of my grandfather's mother-in-law (Sarah Gray Downes, daughter of Joseph Alexander Gray) at this time. Apparently she was quite upset at the tuberculosis diagnosis, being sure that my grandfather would soon die as a result, based on a previous experience with a family member. Although my mother thinks it was Sarah's husband who had died from tuberculosis, his burial records indicate he died of pneumonia. While pneumonia could probably be a secondary disease to tuberculosis, perhaps it was actually Sarah's father (Joseph Alexander Gray) who had died of the disease. Tuberculosis was certainly debilitating enough that it would explain both Joseph's very aged appearance in those photos, as well as the cane shown in one of them.

Is the "mystery" about Joseph thus "solved"? Unfortunately, we may never know for sure. In any case, his apparent early death does help to explain those poems glued inside his wife's Psalm Book. By 1880, when she was not yet 50 years old herself, Henrietta Smith Delano Gray had buried not only her husband, but her three oldest children as well. The pain of losing a child is one which no parent should have to endure even once, but Henrietta experienced it three times. Two daughters were lost in infancy, and James (the family's oldest son) died in 1875, when he was about 17 years old (in as yet unexplained circumstances). According to that same 1880 census, neither of Henrietta's two surviving children (Joseph Henry Gray and my great-grandmother, Sarah Ruth Delano Gray, only 16 and 14 respectively at the time), were still in school. Both were listed as working in what probably were sweat shops, Sarah in a shirt factory and Joseph in a "bolt mill" (but the census does not tell us if that was "bolt," as in fabric, or "bolt," as in "nuts and bolts"). No wonder poor Henrietta seemed to have the weight of the world on her shoulders!

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My maternal great-grandparents, Sarah Ruth Delano Gray and Charles Henry Downes, lived most of their lives in Connecticut (Norwalk and East Hartford), although Sarah was born in Michigan. It is as yet unknown to me why her family lived there at that time, however. My assumption had been that Sarah and Charles met when each was involved in the textile industry, perhaps when Sarah worked in the shirt factory and Charles began his life-long occupation as a hat maker, son of a tailor. However, the 1870 census yielded some surprising information. In 1870, according to the census record, the Gray family (including a 4-year-old Sarah) and the Downes family (including a 4-year-old Charles) both lived in the same house in Norwalk, Connecticut! Neither family owned the house they lived in, and so it is unclear if this situation occurred by chance, or if the two families were actually previously acquainted in some way (perhaps even distantly related somehow -- I do notice some similarities in naming patterns between the Downes family and the extended Delano/Gray family). If nothing else, it is certainly an interesting coincidence!

Sarah has been described by her grandson, John Franklin Collins, as a "patrician beauty," who was "a fine old starchy one." In later years, after the death of Charles, Sarah moved to Rockville Centre, New York, where she lived the rest of her life with her daughter, Hazel, son-in-law, Fred Ackley, and their children (my mother's family).

Jack Collins also remembered his grandfather, Charles Downes, and had this to say about him and the impact of his various skills on the family's life:

"Grandfather Charles H. [Downes] I think was connected with the hat-making business. He must have been fairly handy with carpentry, too. He built a garage ATTACHED to the back of the house on 60 Stanley Street in East Hartford and had a splendid Dodge Touring Car with fold back roof and celluloid removable windows if it rained. I guess an attached garage was quite a new idea in the 20's. I remember the whole tribe piling in when we took vacations down at Lake Terramaugus some summers. The route down there had a lot of curves and hills and I remember being impressed and terrified when, in order to make it up a particularly long hill, he turned around and backed up the whole way. Snapping on the side windows in the middle of a summer rainstorm was also exciting.

He had also put together really sturdy storm windows to close in the front porch interchangeable with screen windows for the warm weather. During the 1938 Hurricane we were let out of school and came home to be safer. There I remember being assigned to hold the weakest storm windows from blowing in (none did), driven rain running down our arms."

The surname of Charles's family had originally been "Downs," but the family tradition is that it was apparently misspelled on Charles's birth certificate and as a result has been known as "Downes" ever since. (I have a copy of Charles's birth certificate, however, and I must confess that I can't tell if this is true or not. The copy is faded just at the end of Charles's name!)

Very little is currently known about the Down(e)s ancestry. Charles was the son of George Washington Downs and his wife, Mary Esther Brush. Born in 1838, Mary Esther was orphaned at an early age, with both her parents (Edwin and Polly Brown Brush) dead by 1847. According to his 1905 obituary, George Washington Downs dropped dead, the result of a stroke, while still at work in his tailor shop at the age of seventy-seven. The parents of George Washington Downs were Smith and Elizabeth Downs, but that's as far back as I've been able to trace the Down(e)s surname thus far. From a handwritten copy of what looks like a family Bible record, I learned the names and some of the life dates for Smith and Elizabeth Downs and their eight children. A notation beside the name of William (twin brother of George Washington Downs, later to be father of Charles) says that he died soon after his 1828 birth. The maiden surname of Elizabeth, Smith's wife, is difficult to read on this paper, but it looks most like "Cooker" (a name that looks like "Hooker" is crossed out, however, and what looks like "Cooker," or perhaps "Crocker," is written above it...). I spent a lot of time searching under all those potential names, trying to find some information on Elizabeth and her family. The only thing I was able to find, however, was an 1850 census record for the Smith Downs family, living in New York at the time. Unfortunately, the census record did not provide information on parents not living in the household at the time, so that didn't help me to trace the lineage back any further than Smith and Elizabeth. There are a few bits of interesting information on this census record, however. There are only five Downs children listed, so I assume that two more of the original eight children listed on the handwritten sheet probably died sometime before 1850 as well (Hester Jane and Louise are the two that are missing on the census record). Both Smith (birthplace given as "Connecticut") and his oldest son, George (22 years old in 1850), have their occupations listed as "tailor." Smith's wife (whose first and middle names are clearly "Elizabeth Hannah" on the handwritten sheet I have) appears as "Eliza H. Downs" on this census. This unfortunately did nothing to clarify her maiden name on the handwritten sheet since the "H" could have been for either "Hannah" or "Hooker"! Only one child, Frances S. Downs (who appears as "Susan F. Downs" on the handwritten sheet), age given as 9 in 1850, attended school during the year previous to the census.

After puzzling over the few facts I knew about Smith and Elizabeth Downs, never really being able to make the pieces of the "puzzle" quite fit, I finally had a brainstorm that helped to answer at least a few of my questions. The older brother of my grandmother (whose father was Charles Henry Downes, grandson of Smith and Elizabeth) was Randolph Chandler Downes, who in later years was a noted historian, author and professor at the University of Toledo. Indeed, some of the papers I have on the Downes family have the notation on them that their originals are on file in the University of Toledo archives. It finally occurred to me to contact them, to see if perhaps they had more papers belonging to Uncle Randolph, ones which might help to answer my questions on the Downes lineage. Lo and behold, they came back with the answer that they did, indeed, have more of Randolph's papers in their manuscript collection -- 23 linear feet of them, in fact! -- one folder of which specifically pertained to his own genealogy research. A recent doctoral candidate at the University of Toledo had also done her dissertation on Randolph Chandler Downes and his historical philosophy, the first chapter of which briefly described his lineage and family background. The University of Toledo archivist kindly made photocopies of that chapter, as well as the genealogy folder, and sent them on to me. Included in these papers was a photocopy of several pages from an older publication entitled, "The Crooker Genealogy" (so, that's what that hard-to-read name was on that handwritten sheet!). These pages provided Elizabeth Hannah Crooker's lineage for several generations, with the notation given that it could be traced back to the 1600s and William Crooker of Oyster Bay, New York (a project for another day, perhaps!).

Further, those few pages enabled yet another piece of the puzzle to fit in quite nicely. An old family Bible record gave birth dates for various members of the Hallowell family; however, I had never been able to find where that surname fit in on our Family Tree. Yet there it was in the pages of the Crooker genealogy, the maiden name of the mother of Elizabeth Hannah Crooker Downs! Sure enough, the "Margaret Hallowell" listed in the "Crooker Genealogy" pages does appear to match the "Margaret Jane Hallowell" listed in that old family Bible record. (Had I only put two and two together a little better myself, I might also have noticed that one of Margaret Jane Hallowell's sisters listed in that Bible record was named "Elizabeth Hannah Hallowell"...hmmm, now where had I heard that name combination before??!)

Unfortunately, all the above does not yet tell me where the other little family group outlined in that old Bible record fits in. The few details provided on that family are enough to paint a tragic little picture, however. To begin with, John Grant married Rachell Wysells on 25 October 1770 in New York. On 23 October 1771, a daughter named Janet Elizabeth was born to John and Rachell Grant. Nearly two years later, on 4 September 1773, another daughter, Rachell Tobina, was born to the couple. The last entry provides the tragic conclusion to the short story of the Grant family. On 28 October 1773, "Rachell, wife of John" died, "at age 18." Since the Grant/Wysells family group is listed on the same page as the Hallowell family group, one can probably assume that they are somehow connected. Perhaps one day we will know how.

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