Escambia County AlArchives Biographies.....Downing, Elisha November 29 1837 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 22, 2004, 9:10 pm

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    ELISHA DOWNING, one of the successful lumber men of southern Alabama, is a
native of this state, born in what is now Escambia county, then Conecuh, on the
29th day of November, 1837. At the age of twenty-one he left home and hired to a
brother, John R. Downing, and for some-time thereafter was engaged as a farm
laborer at $13 per month. He next found employment in a saw-mill in Escambia
county, Fla., and after continuing there some time returned to Conecuh county,
Ala., and engaged with his brother in the timber business, chopping and hewing,
at which he was more successful financially, his earnings amounting to from $2
to $3 per day, which he husbanded with the greatest care, for the purpose of
going into business for himself. About this, time, December, 1859, he met and
married Esther M. Ellis, daughter of William Ellis, of Escambia county, and
shortly thereafter began clearing a farm on Burnt Corn creek, where, he lived
for only a limited period. Not meeting with very encouraging success as an
agriculturist, he gave up the farm, and in the spring of 1862 moved to where his
mill is now located, and in May of the same year enlisted in company H, First
Florida regiment, with which he served in the army of Gen. Bragg until taken
prisoner at Glasgow, Ky., where he lay sick at the time of the capture. After
being paroled he returned home, but subsequently re-entered the army at
Tullahoma, Tenn., where for some time he lay prostrated with a severe illness,
which necessitated a long confinement in the hospital. He was again captured by
the Federals at Jackson, Miss., and sent to Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Ind.,
where he remained a prisoner for twenty-two months, or until after the surrender
of Gen. Lee's army at Appomattox. During his prison experience he was a great
sufferer from various ailments, but at the close of the war he was in much
better health than when he first entered the service. Returning home after his
release, he engaged in getting out timber for railroad purposes, and later was
employed, for some time in hewing timber for the European markets. In 1878 he
invested his savings in a saw-mill on Cedar creek, about five miles northeast of
Brewton, which he operated very successfully for nine years, and in 1887 the
Cedar Creek Mill company was organized, Mr. Downing, his eldest son, Wiley W.,
and S. Maddox, being equally interested in the enterprise. This company still
does business under the original name and is one of the leading timber firms in
Escambia county, owning 18,000 acres of timber land, drained by twenty miles of
canal, and a large mill supplied with the latest improved machinery for the
sawing of timber, it being strictly a timber-mill. Mr. Downing also owns a mill
at Kirkland, Escambia county, and another at Castleberry, both of which are
operated to a limited extent, manufacturing lumber for both home and foreign
markets. In addition to his timber and lumber business, he is at this time
dealing quite extensively in real estate, at different points; is also
interested in the Brewton bank, and in all of his enterprises his success has
been most gratifying. He owns a pleasant home at the town of Castleberry, where
he resides, surrounded by a very interesting family, in the enjoyment of a
competence acquired by a life of close application to his business enterprises.
Mr. and Mrs. Downing are the parents of the following children: Wiley W.,
interested with his father in the timber business at Brewton; Julia P., wife of
T. M. McCall; Alice M., wife of W. A. Hill; Minnie B.; Elisha; Ella P.; Easter
M.; John R., deceased, and Ethel C. Mr. and Mrs. Downing and all their children
are members of the Methodist church. Mr. Downing is, in every respect, a
first-class citizen, a superior business man, and a notable type of the true
christian gentleman. He is liberal in his donations for religious purposes,
takes an active interest in matters educational, and for years has been a pillar
of the-Methodist church in his home town. The parents of Mr. Downing were Wiley
C. and Sarah (Mason) Downing, the father a native of Cook county, N. C., born in
the year 1789. He was a planter, served in the Seminole war, and, as an old line
whig, bitterly opposed the late war between the states. Wiley and Sarah Downing
were married in Conecuh county, Ala., in 1825, and became the parents of the
following children: George W., John R., W. T., Aaron T., Millie, wife of Edward
Milisted, Elizabeth, Elisha, Bryant, Wiley C., and an infant, who died unnamed.
The family was raised in Conecuh county, where the father and mother died in the
years 1866 and 1858, respectively. The Downings are of Scotch descent. Elisha
Downing's maternal grandfather was Peter Mason, who moved to Alabama in an early
day, and settled on the Sepulgah river, in Conecuh county.




Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 958-962
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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