Steven Raymond "Ray" DownsOral History
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An Interview with Steven Raymond "Ray" Downs
March 28, 1975
Conducted by Lois Downs Barrett (see note), Transcribed by Raeburn Sottile
Note: This tape was damaged and all speech has a warped sound to it. Nevertheless, it is clear enough to understand almost entirely. Though it is not explicitly stated, it seems almost certain that the interviewer is his daughter. Our records indicate that he had three daughters: Lois, Nancy, and Cynthia Rae, and the interviewer could be any of them. The tape was mailed to us by R.W. Barrett of Jacksonville Florida, and though we cannot be certain, this suggests that the interviewer was Lois, who married a Ralph Barrett (though we cannot conclude if R.W. IS Ralph or some other relative), though there is still a possibility that a different sister actually did the interview and gave a tape copy to Lois, who gave it to R.W., who mailed it to us. As such, the interviewer is referred to as "daughter" in this transcript.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewer and interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Churchill County Museum or any of its employees.
Content Warning: Inclusion of anti-Black racial slurs in the second half of the interview and attempted justification of child marriage (and therefore implied sexual assault of a young teenager). These were unacceptable then, as they are now, but have been left in so as to not whitewash the horrors of both the early 20th century and the way these horrors were justified in the mid to late 20th century.
DOWNS: [clearly reading] "Lewis Lunsford Downs is one of the fine old pioneers of Nevada."
DAUGHTER: He's your father, isn't he?
DOWNS: He is. "He has lived in this state for over half a century. All his life, he has been a farmer and a rancher. It is to whom such men as Mr. Downs that Nevada owes his development as a state for the steady production of livestock and grain has been a source of steady, dependable wealth to its inhabitants than the riches that have come from the mines. Mr. Downs was born in Adams County, Illinois February the 28, 1852. His parents, George Washington and Sally Ann (Noel) Downs were born in the vicinity of Louisville, Kentucky. They moved across the Ohio River into Illinois, settling in the western part of the state near the Mississippi River. George W. Downs was a Union soldier in the Civil War. Later, he moved across the Mississippi river to a farm in Missouri, where he and his wife both died when about 80 years of age. Thy had a family of seven sons and four daughters, of whom two sons and one daughter survived. Louis Lunsford Downs attended public schools in Missouri during his boyhood. He grew up on a farm and followed that occupation in Missouri for several years. He married in that state, and in the spring of 1879 when he was 27 years of age, he and his wife [Mary E. Markwell Downs] set out for the far west."
DAUGHTER: As an aside to the article that you're reading, which is from Volume III of Nevada Biographies [page 485], written by James G. Scrugham, editor, he was a former governor of Nevada. This is an aside from that article.
DOWNS: When they decided to come here, in those days they had put their furniture, their possessions, on a railroad car and with the furniture and their possessions come into Nevada.
DAUGHTER: Well, if they came west in a boxcar, didn't they live in the boxcar?
DOWNS: They did, while they were crossing the country from Missouri into Nevada. They lived in this boxcar.
DAUGHTER: And was there a… like a wood stove from which they derived their heat and they cooked on it?
DOWNS: I imagine that was one way that it was done.
DAUGHTER: Do you have any idea how long it took?
DOWNS: No, I have no idea how long it took. I never heard dad speak about it.
DAUGHTER: How did they know where they were going?
DOWNS: Well they came through Nevada because Mother had a… Aunt who lived in uh… Nevada at, uh… Little Soda Lake in Churchill County.
DAUGHTER: Hmm… Her aunt came out earlier?
DOWNS: They came out earlier. Her Aunt Mildred.
DAUGHTER: How much earlier, do you know?
DOWNS: I haven't any idea, but it was quite a few years.
DAUGHTER: Amazing.
DOWNS: And then they… that's where, why they came out and why they settled in Lovelock, to be near this relative.
DAUGHTER: Near your relatives or just come west.
DOWNS: Yeah.
DAUGHTER: Yeah, uh-huh. And then that's where they got off of the boxcar was in Lovelock?
DOWNS: In Lovelock.
DAUGHTER: And from that point, then what did they do?
DOWNS: Well, they…
DAUGHTER: Then you're gonna continue with the biography.
DOWNS: "They chose as their first location Lovelock, where Mr. Downs developed a farm and ranch of 160 acres." To my knowledge, this ranch instead of being 160 acres was an 80-acre ranch, with 80 acres north and 80 acres in the west of it. "He came to own-" According to this [unintelligible], "he came to own hundreds of head of livestock, and in order to secure a larger area for them he sold his Lovelock ranch in 1903-"
DAUGHTER: Well, excuse me just a minute. Do you have any idea how much he paid for that Lovelock ranch?
DOWNS: No, I have no idea.
DAUGHTER: Or how he came by it?
DOWNS: I have no idea.
DAUGHTER: I had heard something somewhere in the family that when they… the farmers in the Lovelock area got gold or silver fever that they departed, went to Virginia City, and grandpa picked up a farm that way, is that right?
DOWNS: Well, that could have been because it was in 1879 that he came west.
DAUGHTER: And where did Uncle Jeff enter into this?
DOWNS: Well, they owned this little salt lake- er, Soda Lake.
DAUGHTER: Oh! Uncle Jeff was Grandma's… Uncle. I didn't realize that. Okay, well I can see why they came west to be near him! He was delightful!
DOWNS: To be near him. But they were out here and this was one reason that drew them to the west.
DAUGHTER: I see, uh-huh.
DOWNS: And in 1901, Dad bought a place on what is now called the Harrigan Road, and he had that for two or three years, and then in 1903 he bought with his son-in-law, Fred Wightman, 2000 plus acres in the south part of Churchill County.
DAUGHTER: That's… part of that is the ranch where we live, where I grew up.
DOWNS: That's where we live, and then the Wightman children were… were raised on the upper part of the ranch. After they owned it several years they divided it up, and Dad took the lower part and gave Fred the upper part because it had a good home on it, good house, large home for the family that Fred had.
DAUGHTER: Now, this was Aunt Snow's…
DOWNS: That's Aunt Snow's husband, mm-hmm. "After the division-" Am I supposed to read the?
DAUGHTER: Yeah, go ahead.
DOWNS: Same as it is?
DAUGHTER: Yeah- Well, if you come to a section you don't agree with in the biography, correct it.
DOWNS: "At the present time," at the time of this writing, [1935] "Mr. Downs has only 929 acres. It is a ranch located some nine miles south of Fallon, all well improved since Mr. Downs acquired the land. It is now devoted largely to the production of hay and grain. His son-in-law, Fred Wightman, died some years ago [September 26, 1927]. Mr. Downs has always been an active Democrat. While living in Lovelock he served as road supervisor. He was formerly a member of the Knights of Pythias and Fraternal Order of Eagles, and is a Baptist." Now, we're kind of getting off of the subject here because at the time that he and Fred bought the ranch in 1903, they paid $30,000. They bought it from Fred's Father, who was David Wightman. They paid $30,000, and in the deal they acquired about 200 head of horses and between 4 and 600 head of cattle, which they later sold off and paid for the ranch in that way.
DAUGHTER: Hmm.
DOWNS: So… That doesn't say it in this here.
DAUGHTER: Mmm-hmm.
DOWNS: So… [long pause]. Let's see, it says here… You got it cut off?
DAUGHTER: No, turn it off for a minute?
DOWNS: Yeah, yeah.
DAUGHTER: [Tape cuts] Okay. In the article it said…
DOWNS: He came to own country that had the livestock and 1903 moved to Churchill County…
DAUGHTER: -Bringing the livestock with him, and in reality he- they were already on the ranch.
DOWNS: -On the ranch.
DAUGHTER: And he sold them and paid off the ranch.
DOWNS: In 1903.
DAUGHTER: Which is pretty sharp bargaining.
DOWNS: Well there's… they had no use, and they kept enough on the ranch to keep their… their stock up anyway, you know.
DAUGHTER: Mm-hmm. When did you open the front mercantile store and butcher shop in Rawhide?
DOWNS: In 1904 or 5 he opened his mercantile store in Rawhide and according to the fact that he had to carry… freight everything from Fallon into Rawhide, it was quite a journey for meat and other products to stay in the hot weather. He had to do all of the travelling at night when things were cooler. And then in 1906, the year that the earthquake was in San Francisco, Rawhide burned and he lost his- his building was burned up, burned down, and all of his groceries and what was in the store was all destroyed.
DAUGHTER: So he lost quite a bit of money.
DOWNS: So he lost quite a bit of money. And after he… this fire catastrophe, he came into Fallon and built a slaughterhouse on his ranch, where he… and opened up a business shop in Fallon, with a brother of his son in law. And they ran it-
DAUGHTER: Mr. Wightman?
DOWNS: Lee Wightman.
DAUGHTER: Mm-hmm.
DOWNS: And they run this shop for several years and then finally Dad took it over himself.
DAUGHTER: How long – I didn't know that. How long did he operate it?
DOWNS: Well, I just can't give you the exact dates of how long he operated this butcher shop, but it was several years. Long enough that he paid off every dollar that he owed for groceries and livestock that he killed to take to the mercantile business in Rawhide.
DAUGHTER: Did he have a very high accounts receivable that he had to…
DOWNS: Oh yes, thousands of dollars.
DAUGHTER: That was a lot of money in those days.
DOWNS: Not only, not only from that debt but from his managers that he hired to run the store while he was travelling back and forth hauling freight.
DAUGHTER: Now when he came into town, he killed the beasts on the ranch, and then he had a… what, a four-horse team?
DOWNS: No, just a two horse.
DAUGHTER: -A two horse team on the wagon.
DOWNS: Mmm-hmm.
DAUGHTER: And then he had lanterns on the wagon so he could see his way back to Rawhide, which is quite a trip by automobile.
DOWNS: Yeah. Well, it wasn't by automobile travel in those days.
DAUGHTER: No, no. And didn't he own a spring somewhere in between?
DOWNS: He had a spring. He had a spring just about 12 miles east of the ranch, where he stayed overnight.
DAUGHTER: Mm-hmm
DOWNS: And then went into Rawhide the next day. So it was a two-day journey.
DAUGHTER: What was the name of the spring? Do you remember?
DOWNS: Uh… [long pause]
DAUGHTER: I knew at one time and I can't recall. Isn't it out by Sand Mountain?
DOWNS: It's out there by Sand…
DAUGHTER: Sand Springs or…?
DOWNS: Salt Wells, like right south of Salt Wells, so I cannot think of the name of the spring.
DAUGHTER: But he owned it.
DOWNS: He owned it at that time. And then… after he had paid off all of his debts, right, he held onto this spring for several years and would run cattle out in there, and he also owned what they called Hunt Station [?] which was also a spring up the canyon to Rawhide, and we ran cattle out in there during the summer season.
DAUGHTER: What did they feed on?
DOWNS: On the natural grass.
DAUGHTER: There was natural grass? It wasn’t all sagebrush out there then?
DOWNS: Yeah. It was brush, sagebrush and stuff like that.
DAUGHTER: Oh… Why did he run them out there rather than on the ranch?
DOWNS: Well, you didn't want all your stuff on the ranch to keep eating. You had to have some place for a winter… to winter them. So this was an ideal spot for a summer range, summer and spring range. Spring and summer range.
DAUGHTER: And he was a man of very high integrity. He didn't like to owe anybody.
DOWNS: Yes. He never owed a dollar in his debt. And what he said, that was it.
DAUGHTER: His word was his bond.
DOWNS: His word was his bond, mm-hmm. He needed no contracts or anything, but he needed contracts from other people to protect himself. Which… he trusted the other fellows just as much as he trusted himself.
DAUGHTER: Uh-huh. And so he had that butcher shop until he paid off his debt?
DOWNS: He paid off all of his debts from that butcher shop.
DAUGHTER: And then what did he do with it? Did he partner?
DOWNS: He sold it.
DAUGHTER: He sold it?
DOWNS: Yeah, he sold it to…
DAUGHTER: To whom?
DOWNS: Well, I think to Dan Callahan.
DAUGHTER: Is that the location of the butcher shop across from Kent's? Where there was a butcher shop? [Probably Fallon Slaughtering & Supply, 178 S. Maine 165 S. Maine]
DOWNS: It's location-
HIGH PITCHED VOICE: [unintelligible]
DOWNS: Huh?
HIGH PITCHED VOICE: Harry Market's father did [?]
DOWNS: No, it was right there where Mike Loft [?] has that… those three stores where the…
DAUGHTER: Across the street from Kent's?
DOWNS: Yeah, across the street from Kent's.
DAUGHTER: Yeah. Where there was a butcher.
HIGH PITCHED VOICE: Uh, have you got that thing on?
KAISER: Yes. [unintelligible] That's where the butcher shop was for years and years and across from-
DOWNS: But he had one across the street area.
DAUGHTER: Let's continue with the biography.
DOWNS: "On Easter Sunday, in 1876, the Centennial Year, he married in Missouri Mary E. Markwell. Mr. and Mrs. Downs celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1926, and they were among the golden wedding couples who were honored gests at a celebration in Reno two or three years ago. Mrs. Downs was born in Kentucky, and her people moved during her childhood to Illinois and then to Missouri, where her father was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. downs had only one daughter, Emma Snow Wightman, who is now deceased. There were four sons. Peach Roy is deceased, and Ollie Eugene died at the age of five years. The two living sons are Art, well known Fallon business man; and Ray, at home. All were born on the farm at Lovelock and were educated in Nevada. The Downs ranch near Fallon illustrates the possibilities of artesian wells as a reliable source of water supply. There are four wells on the ranch, approximating a hundred feet in depth, and they furnish a steady supply of water for all domestic and also to some extent for irrigation purposes."
DAUGHTER: This is a little bit of an exaggeration, isn't it, dad about artesian water and its benefits?
DOWNS: Yes it is. The only thing I could say that artesian water is good for is to grow tules in.
DAUGHTER: [laughs] and make coffee with.
DOWNS: Well-
DAUGHTER: [talking over him] adds and extra aroma doesn't it?
DOWNS: We used it domestically, yes, and we all grew to like it. And some of the hard men that I had on the ranch later would fill a water bag at night with artesian water, leave the cork off, and it was just as good as any other water the next day.
DAUGHTER: They were trying to get rid of the sulfur fumes?
DOWNS: They got rid of the sulfur smell and taste during the night.
DAUGHTER: Well the other… the other well that I can recall had a… was saline wasn't it?
DOWNS: No- [Kiser continues talking over him, though he tries to cut her off]
DAUGHTER: A kind of salty water, down where uncle Art lived?
DOWNS: No. Well, maybe the surface water was, but not the artesian. They were too deep.
DAUGHTER: They were too… yeah, yeah. Right, but there were two different tasting…
DOWNS: Yeah, yeah. Very pure, pure water in some locations and not [?] in others. Some of the artesian wells you couldn't even think about drinking them.
DAUGHTER: Oh…
DOWNS: But practically all the wells on our ranch you could drink.
DAUGHTER: I didn't realize there was that much difference in artesian wells.
DOWNS: Yeah, there is quite a bit of difference in it. Just across the fence over in Charlie Frey's place, why, the wells you couldn't drink them if you wanted to.
DAUGHTER: Why?
DOWNS: Well, they were too…
DAUGHTER: Too strong tasting?
DOWNS: Like the sulfur. Too much sulfur in…
DAUGHTER: And of course our well would kill a plant.
DOWNS: Yeah.
DAUGHTER: You could hardly irrigate your farm with it.
DOWNS: Another thing, it's not sulfur, but the artesian water, if you had a steady flow it'd never freeze. It was always good for livestock.
DAUGHTER: It wouldn't freeze?
DOWNS: As long as it was running in and out.
DAUGHTER: Well, is that different from other water?
DOWNS: Well, no, any other water will, but it won't freeze just the same, but we always kept an open space for it to run into.
DAUGHTER: To run in and out. Well this narrative, which Dad has been reading from and making corrections and extemporaneous statements about is a Narrative of a Conquest of a Frontier Land. It's a volume entitled "Nevada." In small print, it says "Comprising the story of her people from the dawn of history to the present time." And the present time at that particular time was 1935.
DOWNS: The time that this was made.
DAUGHTER: That's right. At the time that was published it was 1935. Can you tell me anything about Grandma's people?
DOWNS: No, I can't too much. There was three children, two boys and my mother, in the Markwell family. And at the age of 14, she- mother- my grandmother passed away. My mother took over the raising of the two boys.
DAUGHTER: How much younger would they be, do you know?
DOWNS: They were quite a bit younger. In fact the youngest one, Jim, was several years younger than my mother at the time that her mother died.
DAUGHTER: Their names were Jim and…?
DOWNS: Jim and Paris [Ferris? Harris?]-
DAUGHTER: [talking over, cutting off end of his sentence] Oh, uncle Paris! They came out west also?
DOWNS: Now as to that, I don't know. They didn't come with dad and mom, no. Now, when grandpa Markwell came out… maybe they came out with dad and mom, but I never heard them say that.
DAUGHTER: But doesn't uncle Paris? Didn't he live out here?
DOWNS: He lived out here. He had a ranch. He had an 80-acre ranch on what is now called the Harrigan road.
DAUGHTER: Why was he called Paris?
DOWNS: Now that's another thing I couldn’t tell you.
DAUGHTER: [laughs]
DOWNS: Just the same as why my brother was called Peach!
DAUGHTER: And Aunt Snow!
DOWNS: And so was Snow! I know why she was called Snow, because she was just as white as snow when she was born.
DAUGHTER: And Peach [laughs], must have been just as peachy as a peach! [laughing] what about… grandma's father? Wasn't there something about him?
DOWNS: Grandpa…?
DAUGHTER: And he had, uh, a horse [?]
DOWNS: He was- of course later he went into Kentucky. And he was quite a racehorse enthusiast and he would ride 30, 40 miles to a horse race.
DAUGHTER: On a horse?
DOWNS: On a horse. And then in the later years, why, he came out when we lived on Center Street. And he passed away on Center Street.
DAUGHTER: He lived with Grandpa and Grandma?
DOWNS: Grandpa and Grandma.
DAUGHTER: For how many years, do you know?
DOWNS: Well… I couldn't say how many years, but it was… it was several years that he was here with us.
DAUGHTER: How old was he when he passed away?
DOWNS: Yeah, up in his eighties.
DAUGHTER: You'd say in his eighties? Wasn't he kind of… didn't he like his liquor?
DOWNS: He did. And most Kentuckians do.
DAUGHTER: Well, it isn't entirely constricted to Kentuckians. The Westerners must have been drinking quite a bit, even in those days too! Did he go downtown and enjoy the nightlife on the righthand side of the street or…?
DOWNS: There was no nightlife.
DAUGHTER: Oh.
DOWNS: In those days. Very little
DAUGHTER: But there were saloons?
DOWNS: There were saloons, yes.
DAUGHTER: And gambling houses?
DOWNS: Yep. Yeah, there was some gambling, and he would go downtown and spend a fair time, I guess. A lot of times, why, I’d go down and bring him home.
DAUGHTER: How old were you?
DOWNS: Oh, I was just probably… 8, 9, something like that
DAUGHTER: How did [laughing] how did you know he needed to be… have a little bit of help getting home.
DOWNS: Well, I knew it when he didn’t come home there was something wrong.
DAUGHTER: So you went down and found him, huh?
DOWNS: So I went down and found him.
DAUGHTER: And ride home? [laughs]
DOWNS: No, walk home.
DAUGHTER: Oh, you walked him home.
DOWNS: He only lived a block from Maine Street.
DAUGHTER: Uh-huh.
DOWNS: So…
DAUGHTER: You just guided him home.
DOWNS: Yeah, yeah.
DAUGHTER: Huh. What about the fall [?] of grandpa’s side of the family? Do you know anything about them?
DOWNS: No. As is already been said, he has the five brothers and four sisters, of whom I knew… heard him speak of several of them, but as far as now I couldn’t recollect… recall the names of all of them. He had two brothers who were twins. There were two twins, Newton and Jasper. And then I knew that the oldest boy was named Marion. There was a Tom. Uncle Tom and Uncle Marian. Uncle Marian served in the Civil War, during the Civil War.
DAUGHTER: What, you mean the son and the father both served-
DOWNS: Evidently. Must have been because this narrative says that the father was a Civil War…
DAUGHTER: They were both Union, Union soldiers?
DOWNS: Uh-huh.
DAUGHTER: Hmm. That’s interesting.
DOWNS: Because I’ve heard that several times, but I’ve never heard him say that his father was a union soldier, but I knew that Uncle Tom- No, Uncle Marian went into the service when he was hardly old enough to be a soldier.
DAUGHTER: He must have been a child.
DOWNS: He was young, probably 16, 17 years of age.
DAUGHTER: Hmm… Now when they came out west and they lived in Lovelock, does it say in there, I can’t recall, how many years they lived in Lovelock? And that’s where you were born?
DOWNS: Well, we came to Lovelock in [18]79, as I say, and he sold out in 1903, because in 1901 he bought this 80-acre farm on Harrigan Road and it was such a productive ranch at that time you could drive in with a wagon and load a big load of hay without ever moving the wagon.
DAUGHTER: Oh my word…
DOWNS: And the same thing applied to this ranch in Lovelock. The hay was so thick and heavy that you could drive your wagon out to the field and load that wagon without ever moving that wagon.
DAUGHTER: Was it irrigated from the Truckee River?
DOWNS: No, this-
DAUGHTER: How was it irrigated?
DOWNS: From the Carson River.
DAUGHTER: From the Carson River, huh.
DOWNS: Of course, the Lovelock Ranch was irrigated from the Humboldt River.
DAUGHTER: Must have been very rich soil.
DOWNS: It was very rich and the roots, the alfalfa roots in those days before there was too much irrigation, the roots in the Lovelock valley were 20 to 25 feet below the surface.
DAUGHTER: Is that right? You mean irrigation…
DOWNS: One irrigation was all that they got, practically. Maybe a little bit for the second crop.
DAUGHTER: They didn’t have to search for water.
DOWNS: They didn’t have the waters to irrigate with. After a certain length of time, why the river’s dry and they had… didn’t have the water, and instead of irrigate like they do today, they had little ditches. Little V ditches every probably… 40, 45 feet from one to the other, and they’d run water down through this ditch and throw a dam in in a certain place, and that would sub out [?] on both sides half way across those checks. And then that cleared the water on and go on down and do the same thing until that check – those two checks – were irrigated. And then they’d do the same thing on another.
DAUGHTER: Had do work for it, didn’t they?
DOWNS: They had to work for it, yes. You had to be there to do it.
DAUGHTER: How old were you when-
DOWNS: I was five years old. I was born in 1896, and in 1901 Dad came over and bought this ranch on Harrigan road, and then in 1903, as has been stated, he and brother-in-law bought the Wightman ranch in the lower valley and… I’m going to change this in this way, that it comprised better than 2,000 acres of land. They paid $30,000 for the ranch, there was better than 200 head of horses, and around 4 to 600 head of cattle, and these cattle and horses were sold off enough to pay for the ranch. And then after they ranched it together, why, they divided it up.
DAUGHTER: I remember you saying what a good horsewoman Grandma was.
DOWNS: She was a real horsewoman. In Lovelock, in going to town- We lived out. The ranch was 8 miles south of Lovelock, and the horses – the team that we used to have and drove back and forth from Lovelock to Fallon for- Sister lived here, before we moved over here. And they’d hear a train whistle 10 miles away and they’d make a run for it, and she had to drive those horses that way. And afterwards, after they were gone, why, she drove a single horse to town and the same thing would happen to him! The train would whistle and she’d have to ride that horse into Lovelock.
DAUGHTER: Did she run the wagon, or was it a surrey, between Fallon and Lovelock?
DOWNS: Drove a surrey?
DAUGHTER: Yeah, or…
DOWNS: Oh yes.
DAUGHTER: Why did she go between here and Lovelock?
DOWNS: Because my sister lived in Fallon on a ranch.
DAUGHTER: Aw…
DOWNS: That later Uncle Paris bought.
DAUGHTER: Oh, I see. And so that was quite a trip in those days for a woman
DOWNS: Yeah, it was an all-day trip. We had a little shortcut we could make. We’d come through the lower valley and hit what we’d call the, heh, the safe station in the… for our… lunch, and then we’d come on in to- [End of side A] Here it was, but I think it was in 1903 that he moved his stock and everything from Lovelock to Fallon. It could have been 1901. I won’t say. But anyway, he had 4 head of horses that he tied in pairs – two horses to a pair, you see. And he put Art, brother, on a palomino horse, and with a man’s saddle, and Art was only I would say maybe 8 years old, he started him up with these 4 head of horses, and of course the horses didn’t want to come, they wanted to go back to Lovelock all the time. Two would go this way, two would go this way, by the time he’d get these two in the road, the other ones would be gone.
DAUGHTER: [Laughs]
DOWNS: That kid must have ridden 120 miles in making that 55-mile trip.
DAUGHTER: [Laughs]
DOWNS: And when he got to the Larson Ranch out in Old River, he got off to open the gate, and old Pallie laid down, and Art laid down on Pallie’s neck. And they both went to sleep.
DAUGHTER: [Laughs]
DOWNS: They were just all in. They couldn’t go any further. But of course the horses were all in too, so they didn’t have to be rounded up anymore.
DAUGHTER: Uh-huh. What about your early life here in Fallon? You attended schools here in Fallon?
DOWNS: Yeah.
DAUGHTER: And do you recall who you went to school with? You went to school with Aunt Madge, did you, or did she come here later?
DOWNS: Well, Aunt Madge came later, after I- Well, I… could have been, maybe, in grade school and she could have been in high school, because she was the first graduate out of Churchill County High School.
DAUGHTER: Is that right?
DOWNS: One of the first.
DAUGHTER: Well, where were you living when you attended school? Was it-
DOWNS: On Center street,
DAUGHTER: Oh, the house over there on Center Street.
DOWNS: On Center Street. 1903 dad built that house for mother.
DAUGHTER: She wouldn’t live on the ranch?
DOWNS: She wouldn’t live on the ranch. No more after he’d sold the Lovelock property, why, she wouldn’t live on the ranch.
DAUGHTER: And that really quite a nice home that he built for her.
DOWNS: So he built this home in 1903.
DAUGHTER: And she stayed there for the rest of the time, didn’t she?
DOWNS: Yeah, uh-huh. That is until she passed away. She was there, taken care of by Madge and Art, cared for for quite a number of years.
DAUGHTER: How old was she when she died?
DOWNS: She was 84.
DAUGHTER: She died on the ranch, didn't she? I seem to remember-
DOWNS: No, she died in the house
DAUGHTER: Oh, did she? I thought she was in our… on the ranch. Grandpa lived with you-
DOWNS: Grandpa died on the ranch.
DAUGHTER: -on the ranch. How old was he when he died?
DOWNS: He was also 84.
DAUGHTER: And he died on the ranch?
DOWNS: Now wait a minute…
DAUGHTER: Okay, what about?
DOWNS: Lewis L. Downs was born in 1852 and passed away 1936. Mother, Mary E. Downs, Markwell Downs, was born in 1856 and died in 1938. So that would be…
DAUGHTER: Oh… What about Uncle Jeff? You know, I don't really know too much about him, but I recall that I cared very much for him, that he was a very warm individual.
DOWNS: Yeah, a small man.
DAUGHTER: Mmm-hmm, and I remember he brought me a Christmas tree ornament one year and I kept it – I must have kept it for 40 years before it fell apart. It meant that much to me. He was a really kind man, always gave me a quarter, which was a lot of money in those days.
DOWNS: Well, he ran the saloon here in Fallon.
DAUGHTER: He gave up the ranch then and ran a…
DOWNS: Well, of course I don't know what… how they disposed of Little Soda Lake or anything like that. Of course, that was a soda works at that time.
DAUGHTER: Soda works? You mean they made baking soda there?
DOWNS: Yeah.
DAUGHTER: They really did?
DOWNS: And then he opened the saloon in… on Maine Street there. And then they went to… they sold out here, sold their home, and moved to Long Beach, California.
DAUGHTER: That was quite a long move, wasn't it?
DOWNS: They lived down there for a long time.
DAUGHTER: Huh.
DOWNS: And he had two sons and one of them, a grandson, is living… where, mother? You know Lois is telling us about it?
HIGH PITCHED VOICE: Perry? Wasn't that the name?
DAUGHTER: Well, you lived on center street and attended school and graduated from high school-
DOWNS: Yeah.
DAUGHTER: -In this community.
DOWNS: Yeah.
DAUGHTER: And who were your classmates?
DOWNS: Well, I graduated from eighth grade here in Fallon. Then we went to Reno and-
DAUGHTER: You and who? Lewis, your brother, and your mother?
DOWNS: Mother, mother, mother, and my cousin and another lady.
DAUGHTER: Who are your cousins?
DOWNS: Velma Markwell.
DAUGHTER: Velma Markwell. Now she was Uncle Paris's-
DOWNS: Daughter.
DAUGHTER: Daughter, okay. And another woman?
DOWNS: And… un Celaba Lindy [?] at that time, and we went – and Art – we went to high school up there.
DAUGHTER: Why was that?
DOWNS: Well, I don't know. Mama thought it to be better for us.
DAUGHTER: She was always interested in higher education, wasn't she?
DOWNS: Yeah. Yeah. And so she rented a house up there and we all lived in this one house.
DAUGHTER: Huh. You had a commune, papa! [laughing]
DOWNS: Yeah, it was more or less a commune! [laughing] And it was a large house, two story, so there was plenty of room for all of us. And, as I say, I never graduated from college. I went to- from high school I went up there for several years and then went to work for Robin Bigham [?] as a delivery boy.
DAUGHTER: What was – what kind of business was that?
DOWNS: A grocery store.
DAUGHTER: Grocery store, okay.
DOWNS: And then in 1915, why, at that year, first of the year, I went to University of Nevada as a special student to get Spanish and history.
DAUGHTER: How did they manage that?
DOWNS: Which would apply to my high school diploma.
DAUGHTER: Oh, I didn't realize they had that type of thing available in those days.
DOWNS: Yeah, and then I was assigned to the ROTC, for the military.
DAUGHTER: Huh.
DOWNS: And in drilling one day, why, the commanding officer gave a command. The fellow on my right says "go to hell," and I was pulled out of the ranks. He thought it was me! And he said, "come to my office this evening after school." Which I did, and he questioned me for quite some time to try to make me say that I had said it. I told him I hadn't said it, and I wasn't going to say I had said it. Well, he says, "then you report for band tomorrow." Of course, I was playing the clarinet at the time, and I wanted in the band anyway, because my girlfriend's brother was in the band and I wanted to be in the band.
DAUGHTER: Who was your girlfriend, Maddie?
DOWNS: No. Your mother. [Ruth Pennell]
DAUGHTER: Oh!
DOWNS: Bill was in the band.
DAUGHTER: Oh, I didn't realize he was in Reno at the same time.
DOWNS: He was going to University at the same time.
DAUGHTER: Oh! What did he play?
DOWNS: He played the clarinet.
DAUGHTER: Oh, okay.
DOWNS: So Bill and I played for the- in this dance band for the military ball at that time.
DAUGHTER: Was that your punishment?
DOWNS: That moving to the band was supposed to be my punishment, but it was my pleasure.
DAUGHTER: It's all in a matter of attitude, isn't it? [laughs] Oh, I didn't realize that.
DOWNS: It was about 4 or 5 months that I stayed up there, and then I came back and the first part of 1916, why, I went to work on the ranch.
DAUGHTER: Where did you meet mother, then, in Reno?
DOWNS: I met her in Reno.
DAUGHTER: And she was attending high school?
DOWNS: She was attending high school in Reno and staying with her sister, as was her brother.
DAUGHTER: I see… Aunt Maude brought both of them then to…
DOWNS: She had both of them.
DAUGHTER: To help them.
DOWNS: To Montana to help through school.
DAUGHTER: How did you meet mother?
DOWNS: Well, she was a friend of my cousin, Velma, and they were running around together. At first your mother was going with Art. They went for a little while. And then it just seemed to drift. She said at the end of the school year, why I don't remember what year it was, but she was going home and-
DAUGHTER: To Montana?
DOWNS: To Montana. And I took her on the train, or saw her on the train and then that summer in August, why, I decided to go up and I had no intentions of becoming engaged or anything, and so when we got up there, why, we just seemed to click.
DAUGHTER: How did you manage to get to Montana?
DOWNS: I had money.
DAUGHTER: Well, I don't see…
DOWNS: Went on the train.
DAUGHTER: Oh, you went on the train.
DOWNS: Went on the train.
DAUGHTER: I didn't know that.
DOWNS: And this station of Toston [Montana] was about, oh I don't know, maybe 30 miles from Radersburg where she lived, so I called up and told her that I was there at the station and her brothers came out and picked me up. And then on the 9th of August we left Radersburg with her mother, who was coming out to be with Maude for a while.
DAUGHTER: How long were you in Radersburg?
DOWNS: Oh, I don't know. Maybe a week.
DAUGHTER: That's very romantic, Papa!
DOWNS: So- Well, it couldn't have been very long because… just long enough for me to wire home, tell my dad to send me $100 because I was getting married and bringing my wife home.
DAUGHTER: [Laughs]
DOWNS: I waited until I got the $100, we made arrangements- well, we made arrangements then and were married in Pocatello, Idaho that evening.
DAUGHTER: How far is that from Radersburg?
DOWNS: Well, I don't just remember how far it was, but-
DAUGHTER: With her mother?
DOWNS: With her mother.
DAUGHTER: You went from the train from Radersburg to Pocatello?
DOWNS: No. Yeah, on a train.
DAUGHTER: Why didn't you get married in Radersburg?
DOWNS: Because I was underage.
DAUGHTER: Oh!
DOWNS: I couldn't be married. See, I was only 19.
DAUGHTER: But in Idaho you could get married…
DOWNS: In Idaho, Pocatello, I could get married. Your mother was a year older than I was, and on the ninth of August, we were married that evening and we stayed in Pocatello that day and then took the train early the next morning for Reno, and then from-
DAUGHTER: And Grandma Pennell was with you.
DOWNS: Was with us. All the time. And then after a week or so in Reno… or maybe a week in Reno. I don't know just how long I… We came to the, moved to the ranch.
DAUGHTER: Uh-huh. And that was not the same house where I was raised.
DOWNS: No. No, that was the house where you told the ni-
DAUGHTER: Now let's turn off this machine!
DOWNS: the colored woman that "You smelled like n****"
DAUGHTER: I didn't tell her that she smelled like a n****
DOWNS: No, you said-
DAUGHTER: No, I said, I said I'm sweating like a-
DOWNS: No, just sweating like a n****
DAUGHTER: I know you've never forgiven me for that and she quit, but I was only-
DOWNS: She quit right on the spot and she had scrambled eggs scattered.
DAUGHTER: [Laughs]
DOWNS: It was a mess!
DAUGHTER: I'll never live that one down, will I?
DOWNS: Oh well!
DAUGHTER: Well, when did the ranch house then get built you know the-
DOWNS: The house?
DAUGHTER: Now, okay, where you brought mother was the cookhouse and then became the chicken house.
DOWNS: Became the chicken house.
DAUGHTER: Okay, well, how long did you live there before you built the ranch house?
DOWNS: Now… when was the… Epidemic of Asian Flu?
DAUGHTER: Asian flu? I thought that was a recent innovation, I didn't realize… [ed- The Asian Flu was 1957-58, my guess is he's thinking of the Spanish Flu from 1918-1920]
DOWNS: No, that was in… I think that was in… I can't remember. But I came to town with a team of horses and a hay wagon. I got out a load of lumber to start the house, and on the way home I had gotten just out of town, about a mile when I took sick.
DAUGHTER: How did it manifest itself?
DOWNS: Just by… terrible high fever and nausea.
DAUGHTER: But you were alone in a wagon, huh?
DOWNS: I was alone on the wagon.
DAUGHTER: How did you get home?
DOWNS: Well, horses took me home.
DAUGHTER: Huh. How long did it take you to get well?
DOWNS: Oh, I don’t know. I didn't seem to have it as a lot of the rest of them had passed away during that epidemic.
DAUGHTER: There were a lot of deaths?
DOWNS: A lot of deaths at that time. I don't remember the date of it.
DAUGHTER: And that's when you were building the house?
DOWNS: That was the start of the house that we had built.
DAUGHTER: That was a pretty good-sized house, wasn't it?
DOWNS: Yes, it was 60 by… Yeah, bet it was 60, let's see… 50, 30, 45, it was about 50 by 30.
DAUGHTER: How many square feet is that? How many square footage?
DOWNS: I don't know. I say it was about… I know it was 30 feet wide, each of the rooms.
DAUGHTER: You got the dance floor from somewhere, which was the living room and dining room.
DOWNS: The flooring in the house was what flooring was left out of the old pavilion that was on Center Street.
DAUGHTER: Oh, there was a big dance hall in those days and that's where you got the…
DOWNS: That's where it was- what was left over after the flooring in that building was-
DAUGHTER: That was magnificent wood in that.
DOWNS: Yeah, maple flooring.
DAUGHTER: Just beautiful…
DOWNS: It was maple flooring.
DAUGHTER: Hmm. [Pause] Tell me about Aunt Snow. Didn't grandma send her to finishing school or something in San Francisco?
DOWNS: That could have been. As far as Snow was concerned, or sister as we called her, I haven't much recollections of anything. You see, she was older than Peach, and he was 15 years older than I was.
DAUGHTER: Okay, she was…
DOWNS: He was just double my age, you might say at one time. When I was 15, he was 30. And she could have been down there because Fred [Wightman] was a streetcar conductor at the time that they met.
DAUGHTER: Is that right?
DOWNS: And she was too young to be married without her mother's consent or on land.
DAUGHTER: On land? How old was she?
DOWNS: She was fourteen.
DAUGHTER: Oh my word… What was a girl like 14 years old doing in San Francisco.
DOWNS: I don't know, but she was a mature woman.
DAUGHTER: You mean she looked like she was mature.
DOWNS: Yeah, uh-huh. Her mind and everything was… that old, at that age. And they were married off of the three mile limit.
DAUGHTER: Oh, isn't that romantic?
DOWNS: In San Francisco.
DAUGHTER: She ran away with a streetcar conductor!
DOWNS: Well, I wouldn’t say she ran away with him…
DAUGHTER: [laughs] She eloped with him!
DOWNS: No, she didn't. She may have had her mother's consent but…
DAUGHTER: Or she may not.
DOWNS: Or she may not, I don't know
DAUGHTER: But nobody from the family accompanied her.
DOWNS: Well, not to my knowledge, no. He may have had friends that went with him. I don't know.
DAUGHTER: And then what did they do? They came-
DOWNS: Well then afterwards, he was on a car for quite a while, and then as in 1903 they came here. They had three girls and – She and Fred had three girls and the two boys. And Lois was… I was born in August, and she was born in October.
DAUGHTER: Lois…
DOWNS: Lois Wightman.
DAUGHTER: Well, he must have been from this area if-
DOWNS: Oh sure! He bought his Dad's ranch.
DAUGHTER: -If he bought his dad's ranch, so maybe that's why she was in San Francisco, maybe… You know, couldn't have been a chance meeting with a streetcar conductor! She must have known him. Or through the family somehow.
DOWNS: Well, she didn't know him. She may have known him through the trips that the folks made from Lovelock over here during those years, before Dad moved over here and bought.
DAUGHTER: When did she die?
DOWNS: Snow? I haven't any idea [1925].
DAUGHTER: Or you don't know why or…?
DOWNS: Well, I know why, yes. She was a large woman, over 200 pounds.
DAUGHTER: Oh my word!
DOWNS: But she was about 6 foot tall.
DAUGHTER: Oh my word! I can't believe it!
DOWNS: Large woman. She weighed 4 pounds when she was born. And she was a woman, as I say, over 200 pounds, and the doctor told her that if she'd have some of that fat cut off, why, it would be to her good.
DAUGHTER: Cut?
DOWNS: So they removed I don't know how many pounds of fat-
DAUGHTER: You're kidding…
DOWNS: -from her.
DAUGHTER: In Reno or San Francisco or…?
DOWNS: I guess it was in Reno.
DAUGHTER: Oh, I can't believe that…
DOWNS: Or here now, I don't know. But this Dr. Gardner I think it was did it and, of course, she never came out of it.
DAUGHTER: Oh, I can't believe it. That's worse than the old leeching, isn't it?
DOWNS: Sure was.
DAUGHTER: Oh my word… That was really tragic. And what about Uncle Peach?
DOWNS: Well, Peach was a good guy, well liked. He and Kitty [Hester Austin] in… on Christmas. I couldn't say as to the year [1903], and they were parents of two boys and a girl, and one of the boys is still living, Lewis. And on December the 25th she had a… Kitty had a heart attack and passed away.
DAUGHTER: At what age?
DOWNS: On the day that she was married for so many years hence. And Peach ranched all his- practically all his life. And he bought this home out from his in-laws, the Smittens where they lived until his death. And well not until- yeah, just about until his death, I guess. He died of cancer of the liver.
DAUGHTER: Huh. You… had an affinity for motorcycles, didn't you?
DOWNS: Well, I don't say it was an affinity. Why, we had motorcycles when we were kids. We had a… Art had a… bought an Indian motorcycle and, of course, I had to try it out one day. Going up on Williams Avenue, a probably 60, 65 miles an hour I hit a raise in the road where they had put a water line, which was raised about 10 to 12 inches. When I hit that my motorcycle and I went in the air. When it came down it was laying across my legs. I was out for probably 36 hours.
DAUGHTER: Oh my word…
DOWNS: And that was the end of my motorcycling.
DAUGHTER: How old were you?
DOWNS: Oh, I don't know. I was in high school.
DAUGHTER: Uh-huh. Huh. You came back and forth then, from Reno to here in Fallon?
DOWNS: Yeah, totally, yeah
DAUGHTER: By wagon?
DOWNS: No, no. We had automobiles.
DAUGHTER: You had an automobile by that time?
DOWNS: By that time, yeah.
DAUGHTER: How long did it take?
DOWNS: 19- Dad bought this Hupmobile in… Well, it was a 1914 model is what it was. A touring car.
DAUGHTER: Huh. Who drove it?
DOWNS: Well, he started driving and he went through the Fallon Garage one time [laughing]
DAUGHTER: [Laughs] You mean through the end of it?
DOWNS: And then we had a… a garage over… A slough out on what we called the Inman Ranch that he had possessed. Went through the end of that. And then this… brother, Fred Wightman wanted him to go to Reno to see a lawyer and on their way up just after they passed Wadsworth, why, Charlie Wightman said "Let me drive." So he kept pestering Dad and Dad finally let him drive and he'd driven maybe about 3 or 4 miles, just drove right off of the road and turned the car over on the railroad tracks. Killed him and threw dad from the front seat to the back seat. And dad had some chickens in a thing there, a coop or something that he was taking, bringing up to us. And then they picked the car up and overhauled it. We had it on the ranch for quite a while.
DAUGHTER: Is that… how long did it take to drive, say, from Reno to Fallon?
DOWNS: Oh, uh, four or five hours in an automobile.
DAUGHTER: How long would it take in a wagon?
DOWNS: We'll you'd take in a wagon probably 8 hours or more. Because it's 60 miles.
DAUGHTER: What do you recall about living in Fallon in those early days? What, there was Doris Wightman who lived here, who is Doris Drumm now…
DOWNS: [talking over] there wire the Wightmans, there with the Wightmans and the Pritchards, and the- Roy Williams' parents' family, and the Clarks and the Blanes, and… I can't recall too many of them, but…
DAUGHTER: How many were in your high school class?
DOWNS: I couldn't say as to that.
DAUGHTER: How many were living in the community at that time?
DOWNS: Oh, probably two to three hundred, something like that.
DAUGHTER: Huh. You knew everybody in town then, didn't you?
DOWNS: Oh yeah, knew everybody in town up until the last fifteen, twenty years. But now you go downtown you don't hardly know anyone.
DAUGHTER: What do you recall about the ranch and your life on it?
DOWNS: Well, in 1916 when your mother and I were married, I spent 30- or we did, spent 37 years there. In 1953 we sold it, our part that we had divided up between Art and I, the 929 acres. And we moved to town in June of 1953 and lived here, bought this place and lived here. And she passed away at 1956 in the August 29, I think it was. And then I went to work for the theater as a manager, and I was there for, oh, probably a year. And then I had put in an application for… I was there less than a year… for a job as a maintenance on the state highway under George Coleman. I got word to go to work on a certain Monday morning and I worked for the- on the maintenance crew from '53 to '63, November of '63 at which time I retired. And in the meantime in 1957, the fall or Christmas, December the 18th of 1957, am I right?
DAUGHTER: [laughs]
DOWNS: Bessie and I were married. And we've made this our home ever since.
DAUGHTER: You've been married a long time.
DOWNS: It'll be eighteen years this year.
DAUGHTER: On the ranch in the early days, wasn't there a lake? You know, outside the house where you brought mother as a bride?
DOWNS: Well, below us, below the ranch, this community pasture, which was a body that was covered about in 18,000 acres that was covered with water.
DAUGHTER: And it was just a natural lake?
DOWNS: Well, it was an overflow, you might call it, from irrigation, which was a game refuge and is today. And we used to be able to sit in the old house that we lived in when we first married and shoot ducks out the window. That's how close the water was.
DAUGHTER: And there must have been a lot of-
DOWNS: A lot of mosquitoes and a lot of-
DAUGHTER: [talking over him] A lot of mosquitoes and a lot of ducks, huh?
DOWNS: Yeah.
DAUGHTER: I'll bet. There were a lot of mosquitoes while I was growing up there. And initially you farmed alfalfa?
DOWNS: Alfalfa and grain.
DAUGHTER: And then you had cattle.
DOWNS: In later years, why, I turned a lot of the land into a pasture and raised cattle, young steers. I bought the steers at approximately 5… 4 to 500 pounds and raised them that summer and fed them out in the winter.
[end of tape]
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