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Who is David Downey?
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Grave photographed by Sallie Jensen |
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by Tricia Noel
Just north of the little village of Dresden, David Downey Road connects to Route 14 and winds eastward toward Seneca Lake. It is difficult to travel by the road sign and not wonder, “Who is David Downey?” Most roads named after a person or family just use a surname, but this road is unusual in receiving his first and last name.
David Downey was born in a farmhouse on that road in Torrey before there was a Torrey or even a Yates County, on March 10, 1803. His parents were Robert Downey and Rachel Southerland, who had married in Baltimore, Maryland on October 13, 1800, before traveling north to settle in New York State. They were some of the earliest non-native residents of present-day Torrey that did not come with the Public Universal Friend’s followers. Robert was an early road commissioner. They had five children, David, John, Robert, Jr., Mary and Jane, there in the little farmhouse. Robert and Rachel both died in 1832, a few months apart, and are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Torrey. David presented Robert’s will in court in 1833.
David married Caroline Norman (1810-1870), daughter of James and Jane Norman, who lived close by on Anthony Road. David and Caroline stayed in the farmhouse built by his parents. David ended up living in the house his entire life. They had four sons, Robert, William, George, and David, Jr. Downey’s farm was small, valued at $2,500 in 1850 ($102,000 today), with a modest fifty acres of improved land, two horses, three cows, and twenty-four sheep, six pigs, and 250 bushels of wheat on hand. The little farm stood on the north side of the road, near where it intersects today with Anthony Road, which was not cut further north at that time. The Nutt family lived nearby, and for whom nearby Nutt Road is named.
Downey was heavily involved in civic activities. In 1852, he was chosen to represent the Town of Torrey in the Whig Convention in Penn Yan. He served as the Torrey Town Assessor multiple times and served on countless juries. During the Civil War, he and a number of self-proclaimed “old men to the rescue” requested a meeting at the Dresden Hotel of other Torrey men over the age of forty-five who, though exempt from military duty, wished to help the Union by garrisoning forts or “such other duty as they shall be capable of.” Downey was also an active member of the Presbyterian church.
His children stayed close by and most of them followed the tradition of civic engagement, especially David, Jr. His son George, who lived near Long Point on Seneca Lake, even had a road named for him, like his father (Downey Road). George married Elizabeth Hathaway, great-granddaughter of Thomas Hathaway, who came with the Society of Universal Friends in 1788. (Elizabeth was well known for being able to regale others with stories of that time in Torrey that she learned from her grandfather.)
In 1876, at the age of seventy-three, Downey was thrown out of a wagon, landing on his head and shoulder. Despite this, he lived almost twenty more years, until the age of ninety-one. He died on December 27, 1894, and was buried next to his wife Caroline in Evergreen Cemetery in Dresden. His obituary read, “David Downey, Sr., aged 91 years, one of the oldest residents of this section, has been called from earth away. In his younger years he was very active in the civil and religious affairs of life. Yet, possessed of a gentlemanly bearing and kindly hospitality, it was a pleasure to meet him, even in his declining years. He lived until life ceased to be sweet to him, and the Old Grandfather, although almost a constant care for years, will be missed from the home where he has left a dutiful son, who has ministered to his wants for so many years. He has gone to the land of youth and beauty, to join those who have gone on before.
When his son David, Jr. died in 1912, his obituary in turn read, “ He [Downey, Jr.] was born on the farm on which he died, as was his father before him, the homestead acquired by the first Downey having never passed out of the possession of the family.” It is fitting, then, that the road bears the name David Downey, since two men of that name spent over a hundred years living there. Perhaps it is named for them both?
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