Biography of Samuel Harrison Downend, pages 784/785.  History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



Samuel Harrison Downend



Improvement and progress may well be said to form the keynote of the 
character of Samuel Harrison Downend, a well known and influential 
farmer and stock raiser of Keyser township, and he has not only been 
interested in the work of advancing his own individual affairs, but his 
influence is felt in the upbuilding of the community.  He has been an 
industrious man all his life, striving to keep abreast of the times in 
every respect, and as a result every mile post of the years he has 
passed has found him further advanced, more prosperous, and with an 
increased number of friends.

	Samuel Harrison Downend is a native of the old Buckeye state, 
having been born on December 13, 1859, in Richland county, Ohio, and is 
the son of John and Sarah (Bechtel) Downend.  John Downed, who also was 
born in Richland county, Ohio, on July 11,1834, was the son of James 
and Eliza Downend, who were natives of Lincolnshire, England, from 
whence they came to America, probably in May 1834, locating in Richland 
county, Ohio, where they spent the remainder of their lives on a farm.  
There their son John grew to manhood, and on February 10, 1859, married 
Sarah A. Bechtel, who was born in Wayne county, Ohio, on May 6, 1840, 
the daughter of David and Elizabeth (Harmon) Bechtel.  On March 20-, 
1861, John Downend and his wife came to DeKalb county, Indiana, 
locating in Keyser township, where Mr. Downend had previously bought a 
tract of land in sections 7 and 8 in the southwestern part of that 
township, and here they lived until their deaths, acquiring a fine 
estate of one hundred and forty acres.  They became the parents of four 
children, Samuel H.; Clara, deceased; Franklin, who died in infancy; 
Charles E., the latter now living in Fort Wayne, and is a traveling 
salesman.  The father of these children died on October 11, 1895, and 
his wife on October 6, 1882.

	The subject of this sketch was reared under the parental roof and 
as soon as old enough took a hand in the cultivation and improvement of 
the home farm.  He received his educational training in the district 
schools of that neighborhood, and at the age of twenty-two years he 
went west. Where the following two years were spent.  At the death of 
his mother Mr. Downend returned home and remained with his father and 
sister, having operated the home farm continuously since.

	On March 11, 1885, Mr. Downend was married to Laura Houser, who 
was born in what was then the northern part of Butler township, now in 
Keyser township.  Her death occurred on February 21, 1912, at the age 
of forty-eight years.  She was the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth 
Houser, and was born on May 30, 1865.  She was a devoted wife, a loving 
mother, a good neighbor and highly esteemed by all who knew her. By her 
union with Mr. Downend she became the mother of four children: Harry 
E., born June 29, 1886, and who married Ella Clark, now lives in 
Garrett, and is the father of two children, Dorothy and Harriett; 
Walter E., born April 27, 1888, married Alta Lung, and has two 
daughters, Catherine and Laurine. He lives on the home farm with his 
father; Bertha, born January 17, 1890, married Perry Gump, and they 
live on the latter’s farm near Mr. Downend’s place; William J., born 
May 19, 1896, lives in Garrett, where he is employed in the United 
States Express Company and also farming.

	Mr. Downend is an active supporter of the Democratic party and in 
1908 was elected trustee of Keyser township, holding the office for a 
six-year term and being it present incumbent.  He exercises in his 
official position the same business methods and enterprising spirit 
which has characterized his own affairs, and is performing the duties 
of his office to the full satisfaction of all concerned. Fraternally, 
he is a member of the Knights of Maccabees and the Fraternal Order of 
Eagles. He is a man of kindly impulses and genial nature and because of 
his excellent qualities of character and the splendid success which he 
has attained, he is deserving of the high regard in which he is 
universally held throughout his section of the county.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com