LOCATION
Downsville was located northeast of Council Bluffs along Mosquito
Creek. The site today is located in Norwalk Township of Pottawattamie
County. Sections 29, 30, 31, and 32 contained the whole of the
settlement. The Downsville Cemetery, the only surviving evidence of the
community, can be found northeast of Council Bluffs just off of I-80 on
Juniper road. The town nearest to Downsville is Underwood, Iowa.
Underwood was built in 1869 to accommodate railroads which had bypassed
Downsville.
HISTORY
Between 1845 and 1850, various settlers began building on what today is
the southwest corner of Norwalk Township. In 1847 Ezekiel Downs and A.
Smith built a flouring mill and saw mill along Mosquito Creek about ten
miles northeast of Council Bluffs. This is the first record of any
permanent residence or land improvements in the area. The mill was a
boon to growth, attracting incoming Mormon settlers as a means of
refining wheat so that it might be sold as grain in Council Bluffs.
Soon there were many Mormon and non-Mormon settlers concentrated around
a village they called Downsville.
The flour mill built by Ezekiel Downs and A. Smith was destroyed by
high water and flooding in 1852. Though the saw mill survived, Ezekiel
and his son Asa, who had bought Mr. A. Smith's rights to the mills,
sold to William Garner. Garner operated the saw mill for years
afterwards, but never rebuilt the flouring mill. Downsville was without
its central economic advantage until much later when a new flouring
mill was built by Joseph Subuary and James Golden. Moreover, as the
Mormon settlers moved away from Downsville and continued their trek to
the Salt Lake Valley, fewer and fewer permanent settlers took their
place. Downsville experienced a sharp drop in population after the
Mormon exodus. The loss of the mills only worsened the future prospects
of the small settlement.
Nevertheless, in 1863 a schoolhouse was built on Section 32 near the
saw mill. Taught by Miss Jane Davis, the school helped retain some of
Downsville's citizens for another two decades. Downsville's proximity
to Council Bluffs also prompted the construction of a post office.
These improvements, however, could not outweigh the business plans of
railroad companies seeking a route to Council Bluffs. In 1882, the
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company entered a contract
to build a station in Section 16 of Norwalk Township, 2.5 miles
northeast of Downsville. The contract was engineered by a Mr. Fischer
and a Mr. Graybill who owned the land on Section 16. They persuaded the
railroad company to bypass Downsville in favor of using the station to
help found a new settlement called Underwood. Mr. Fischer and Mr.
Graybill of course made a nice profit dividing their land plots for
sale to farmers eager to be close to railroad access. Unfortunately
their decision consigned Downsville to anonymity despite its mills,
school and post office. These improvements remained, of course, but as
the population center of Norwalk Township shifted to Underwood the
attraction of Downsville declined. Today only the Downsville Cemetery
marks the site of Norwalk Township's earliest settlement.
FAMILY DIFFICULTY
Ezekiel Downs and his family are usually credited with the majority of
settlement at Downsville. The Downs were the first Mormon family to
build a permanent residence in the area. Ezekiel and his wife Charlotte
originally came into contact with Church members in 1838, when the
Mormons were exiled from Missouri. Many destitute families moved to
nearby Quincy, Illinois seeking aid and support. Ezekiel Downs and his
family took pity on five families that came to their farm. Between 1840
and 1844, the Downs were baptized into the Church and had moved to
Knowlton's Settlement twelve miles south of Nauvoo, Illinois. After the
martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. at Carthage Jail, Ezekiel
exclaimed to his family, "Well this is the last, my best friend is
gone, surely there is nothing to this after all. I am through." He
later dreamed of seeing Joseph Smith, Jr. at the top of a hill
beckoning to him. Ezekiel followed until he was exhausted. The dream
ended as soon as he stopped following the Prophet. His son, James
Downs, also had a dream containing a vision of the Saints crossing the
Mississippi, mob violence in Nauvoo, and their stopping at a great body
of water to raise crops and give thanks. The contrast between Ezekiel's
dream and that of his son foreshadowed what would befall the family in
Iowa.
The Downs family moved across Iowa to the Missouri River in 1846,
travelling with the main body of Saints led by Brigham Young. They
reached Council Bluffs in June of the same year. James was apparently
persuaded to join the Mormon Battalion. His mother, however, had become
ill and was afraid of never seeing her son again if he left with the
army. James remained to care for his mother and family. But instead of
following Brigham Young to the Salt Lake, they moved away from Council
Bluffs. It was at this point that Ezekiel Downs and A. Smith built the
mills on Mosquito Creek.
During the trek to the Missouri River Ezekiel Downs grew displeased
with the leadership of Brigham Young. Moving his family away from
Winter Quarters and Council Bluffs was essentially his vote of no
confidence in Young's leadership. He later defied outright the
leadership of the Church by marrying Frances F. Graham. A Frontier
Guardian notice dates the marriage to June 15, 1851. The newspaper's
notice also adds that Ezekiel Downs was excommunicated from the Church
"for banishing his wife from him, and for bearing false testimony to
obtain a marriage license between himself and another woman." The
specifics of the turmoil in the Downs family are unknown, but it
eventually caused a separation. Ezekiel remained in Iowa with his
youngest son, Sidney, and Charlotte left with the rest of the family
for the Salt Lake Valley. Another son, Asa Downs, eventually returned
to Iowa and settled near his father. Ezekiel passed away on January 20,
1860.
FAMILY AND SETTLEMENT
The fracturing of the Downs family had an important impact on the
survival of Downsville. The family's difficulties ruptured strong ties
outside of the small community and perhaps socially isolated the small
community. Ezekiel Downs's disassociation with the Church and its
members may have separated them from possible business contacts and
land improvement enterprises. As a result, land improvements, including
new mills, were built elsewhere, attracting incoming settlers to other
places. Downsville slowly lost favor as a place to grind wheat as newer
mills closer to Council Bluffs were built. This explains why William
Garner repaired the saw mill on Mosquito Creek after 1852 but never
re-built the Downs flour mill. Nearby settlers could bring their crops
to closer flour mills, thus Downs Mill became unnecessary.
Used by permission of the
Winter Quarters Project |
