TX BIOS:  Mrs. W. H. Downing
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   0001
   
   Dulaney, Ethel C., [Wich?] Falls, Texas
   
   8/19/'38 49 Wichita County
   
   REMINISCENCES OF MRS. W.H. DOWNING
   
   Mrs. Downing is one of Wichita Falls' lovable pioneer citizens. She
   has spent practically her entire life here; and is one of the oldest
   members in point of service in the First Methodist Church. Her
   "Reminiscences" are on file at Kemp Public Library.
   
   "I came here in 1884, starting from [Fort?] Sill, where I had been for
   three or four years. My father worked for the government saddle and
   harness shop there. We started in a government Red Cross wagon. We
   were with a crowd of people coming this way. We could not get across
   the ferry so we stayed all night at Grogan's. They took us on to
   Henrietta the next day, and we came on the train to Wichita Falls. My
   father worked in the harness shop of John and Henry Stockett on Ohio
   Avenue. The first man I spoke to was Ike Marcus. - -Mr. J.A. Kemp had
   a little general merchandise store in a red brick building on Ohio
   Avenue. We lived in a little log house on Ohio several blocks south of
   the stores.
   
   "I used to see the cowboys ride through and shoot up the town, but
   they didn't mean any harm; they were just having a good time.
   
   "At that time there was just one Sunday school, and it was a Union
   [DEL: chool :DEL] school. Judge Barwise was superintendent. Miss Lula
   Barwise played the organ.___
   
     NOTE: [?] - 12. Tex.
     
   "When school started in September. [DEL: [?] :DEL] We met in the
   little building that stood where the Masonic Temple now stands. - - -
   As the school grew, the authorities put up another, until there were
   several little separate rooms on the lot.
   
   "In September they had the first annual picnic. Barbecued beef, [DEL:
   ickles :DEL] pickles, and light bread were served to all who came. The
   picnic was held on the old Williams place out on Holliday Creek. Lots
   of people came from nearby towns. Many of them did not come prepared
   to pay hack fare from 00022the depot to the picnic grounds, and they
   had to walk out throught the deep sand. There were no side walks
   anywhere and the sand was several inches deep in the roads in some
   places. Hundreds of Indians came and that night they got together out
   at the Knott Barn on the hill and had a War Dance.
   
   "Old man Gilbert from Gilbert Creek neighborhood used to bring milk
   and deliver to every one who wanted it. He had chain harness instead
   of leather on his old horse, and we could always hear him coming. We
   just hung our bucket on the fence and when he came along he just
   measured a quart of milk and poured into it. He was a very kind
   hearted old man. One time a widow woman was about to stop taking [DEL:
   mild :DEL] milk because [DEL: hse :DEL] she could not pay for it; he
   found it out and brought the milk without pay.
   
   "My husband, Mr. W.H. Downing, came here in 1885, and he and his
   brother and a man maned Dud Hart started the first [DEL: uursery :DEL]
   nursery in this part of the country. They bought a piece of land just
   north of the river where they grew their nursery stock. The drought
   came in 1886, and they did not make anything. Their former employer at
   Terrell, Texas, offered them their jobs if they would come back, but
   [DEL: the :DEL] they refused. During that year carloads of flour were
   sent in to the drouth suffers, but they did not accept any help.
   
   "In 1889 Mr. Downing and I were married. - - -
   
   "The rains came and times got better, and the Downing Brothers'
   Nursery began to be a going concern. They bought more land south of
   town known as the Keen place, where the Cedar Park Pool now is
   located. Mr. Downing had the first green house in Wichita Falls on our
   little home place north of the river, and people drove out from town
   in their buggies after flowers. 00033"In 1904 we had a [DEL: terribel
   :DEL] terrible sand storm. Mr. Downing was plowing in the field, and
   the wind became so strong that it blew him out of the row, so he quit
   and came in. [DEL: here :DEL] There were other bad sand storms in
   those early days; sometimes we could not see the buildings across the
   street. One storm lasted for three days and nights.
   
   "Mr. Downing and his brother had a wind mill on their farm south of
   town, and did some irrigating on a small scale, and raised all [DEL:
   knids :DEL] kinds of vegetables for the market. Later when water was
   available from the Wichita Lake, they knew how to use it and had
   irrigated gardens all the time. Later Mr. Downing sold out the nursery
   business to his brother, and he spent his time raising strawberries,
   tomatoes, green peppers, etc. for the wholesale produce market. One
   [DEL: wholesale :DEL] wholesaler dubbed him 'The Pepper King', for he
   seemed to be the only man around here who could grow sweet peppers.
   Each spring he raised early vegetable plants and sold them all over
   this vicinity.
   
   "Mr. [DEL: Dowinig :DEL] Downinig and my mother, Mrs. Bettie Gentry,
   organized a little Sunday school across the river in 1891. Mother went
   out and collected money and built a little house, which had two rooms
   and an L. It was made a mission Sunday school----later abandoned when
   so many people moved away from that side of town.
   
   "Mr. Downing was very active in the work of the Methodist church, and
   was Superintendent of the Sunday school for sixteen consecutive years.
   He was one of the earliest stewards of the church, and at the time of
   his death in 1926 he was the oldest steward in point of service and in
   point of age.
   
   "I have been a member of the Methodist church here for forty-nine
   years, having joined in August., 1885.

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