BIO: John DOWNEY, Dauphin County, PA

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http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm
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Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, 
Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the 
Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers.  Chambersburg, Pa.: 
J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 194.
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  DOWNEY, JOHN, the son of John and Sarah Downey, was born at 
Germantown, Pa., in the year 1765.  The elder Downey was an officer of 
the Revolution under Gen. John Tracey and was inhumanly massacred at 
the battle of Crooked Billet.  The son received a classical education 
in the old academy there, and in 1795 located at Harrisburg, where he 
opened a Latin and grammar school.  At this period, in a letter to 
Governor Thomas Mifflin, he proposed a "plan of education," remarkably 
foreshadowing the present common-school system, and which has placed 
him in the front rank of early American educators.  He was for many 
years a justice of the peace, and served as town clerk for a long time.  
He was the first cashier of the Harrisburg Bank, largely instrumental 
in securing the erection of a bridge over the Susquehanna, and one of 
the corporators of the Harrisburg and Middletown Turnpike Company; was 
a member of the Legislature in 1817-18, and filled other positions of 
honor and profit.  He died at Harrisburg on the 21st of July, 1827, and 
the Oracle speaks of him as "a useful magistrate and pious man."  He 
wrote much for the press, and a series of articles published in the 
Dauphin Guardian, entitled "Simon Easy Papers," were from his pen - 
sparkling with wit;  they are worth a permanent setting, as a valuable 
contribution to literature.  Mr. Downey married, June 5, 1798, Alice 
Ann Beatty, daughter of James Beatty, Esq., one of the first settlers 
at Harrisburg.  She died in Ashland county, Ohio, May 14, 1841.  their 
daughter, Eleanor Downey, born 1811, at Harrisburg; died 1869, at 
Springfield, Ohio; married April 5, 1851, Hon. Daniel Kilgore, of Ohio.