Information Sheet

 

 

R            Downing family.

49                    Downing and Whinrey families, papers, 1837-1929.

                                    11 folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

This collection consists of receipts and correspondence of the Downing and Whinrey fami­lies of southwestern Missouri.  Both families had members who went to California to mine gold in the 1850s, some of whom remained to settle in the West.  Most of the collection consists of let­ters written to relatives in Missouri.

 

James Downing left Missouri in 1850, bound for the gold fields of California.  Six older sons and stepsons accompanied him.  His wife, Mary Carlisle Bell Downing, stayed be­hind at Halltown, Missouri, with the remainder of her family by Downing and a previous hus­band, Rob­ert R. Bell.  After crossing the plains, the Downings and Bells began placer mining near Caloma, California.  Lackluster results discouraged the elder Downing, who de­termined to make the long journey back to Missouri, this time by sea.  He did not survive the trip, and was buried at sea.

 

Some of the Downing and Bell brothers remained in California, but they soon aban­doned mining for work as teamsters and farmers.  Beginning at Caloma and Cash Valley, they had spread out by the 1880s to Paradise, Visalia, Sacramento, Fresno, Biggs, and Squaw Val­ley.

 

Most of the letters in the collection are addressed to Mary Downing by her sons.  The earli­est correspondence from California includes descriptions of the journey across the plains and of placer mining in the mountains.  Letters written in the 1860s and 1870s mention hard eco­nomic condi­tions, the possibility of a military draft in the state during the Civil War, the freight­ing business, and various local events.  The later correspondence generally contains only family news.

 

There are also a few letters from Elizabeth Shannon, Mary Downing’s sister in Ten­nes­see, and from William Clark Whinrey.  Whinrey, originally from Rheatown, Tennessee, also tried his hand at mining in California, but soon returned home.  He moved to Missouri in 1859, and in 1864 married Elizabeth Ruhama Downing.  Mary Downing, Elizabeth’s mother, spent the re­mainder of her life with her daughter and William Whinrey, in whose papers this collection was found.

 

 

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