Lacrosse-Jackson-Green County WI Archives Biographies.....Downer, Clarissa (Roberts) 1819 - 
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Roxanne Munns rmunns@uwalumni.com June 4, 2007, 5:46 pm

Author: Unknown

MRS. CLARISSA DOWNER, formerly Clarissa Roberts; Mindoro. Mrs. Downer was born 
in the town of Collins, Erie Co., N. Y., in 1819. She removed with her parents 
to Wayne Co., Mich., in the fall of 1831. Married in 1837, to Mr. Luther 
Downer, who was born in Vermont in 1812, and removed to Michigan with his 
parents. Mr. and Mrs. Downer came to La Crosse Co. in November, 1846. Mr. 
Downer had made a claim in Lewis Valley the spring before. They were the first 
of the permanent settlers who came into Lewis Valley, and doubtless the first 
land broken in the valley was on the claim of Mr. Downer; as there were no 
settlers in the valley at that time, Mr. Downer and wife went to North Bend, 
Jackson Co., till such time as others should be ready to settle near them. 
Jan. 1, 1848, they settled permanently in the valley. The three Lewis 
brothers, after whom the valley was named, had then been about three weeks in 
the valley. The breaking above referred to was in the summer of 1847. The 
claim of Mr. Downer was adjacent to - in fact, included the present village of 
Mindoro. In the spring of 1855, Mr. Downer settled on Sec. 33, and on this 
homestead Mrs. Downer still resides. Her husband died April 2, 1856. They had 
four children - Joanna, born in Michigan, March 8, 1839; Cyprian, born May 13, 
1840; Anthony, born April 25, 1842; and Lorette, born Oct. 14, 1848. Lorette 
is the only one living, and was the first child born in the town of 
Farmington. She married Benjamin F. McClintock, son of Hugh McClintock, who 
settled in Greene Co. from the State of Ohio, and came to La Crosse Co. in 
1853. He now lives in the town of Hamilton. B. F. McClintock was born in Ohio 
in 1844. He served about one year during the rebellion, as a member of 
Foster's Battery. Has two children - Perry and Clifton. Mrs. Downer's two 
sons, Cyprian and Anthony, were members of Co. I, 8th W. V. I., during the 
rebellion. The former enlisted in the fall of 1861, and served three years; he 
died in 1872. The latter enlisted in the same company, August, 1862, and died 
in the hospital at Memphis, September, 1863. Her daughter, Joanna, married 
Daniel L. Calkins, and died at her residence, near Cleveland, Ohio, Sept. 29, 
1863. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Downer and her children spent about 
three years with her friends in Michigan, but Lewis Valley has been her home 
since she came with her husband to the Territory of Wisconsin, in 1846.

Additional Comments:
From "History of La Crosse County, Wisconsin", 1881, p. 851.

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