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MONONGALIA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
PJSTON@aol.com
December 6, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II
pg 95
William Smith Downs, a civil engineer of Morgantown, is division engineer of
the west Virginia State Road Commission. He is a native of West Virginia,
born at Martinsburg in Berkeley County, March 15, 1883, a son of the late
Joseph A. and Caroline J. (Evans) Downs. This branch of the Downs family was
established in what is now West Virginia by Henry Downs, who came into
Berkeley County in 1812 from Prince George County, Maryland, five generations
removed from the present. Davenport Downs, grandfather of William S. Downs,
removed from Berkeley County, West Virginia, to Iowa, in 1852. He served in
the war between the states and died in Iowa shortly after its close.
The Evans family was established in what is now West Virginia by John Evans
and his wife, Mary, who came to America from Wales and settled in Berkeley
County before the Revolutionary war. He built the old Evans fort which stood
on what is now the Winchester Turnpike, about two miles south of the present
City of Martinsburg. Tillottson Fryatt Evans, the maternal grandfather of
William S. Downs, was born in Berkeley County, as was also his wife, Jane
Orr. He spent his life there engaged in farm pursuits.
Joseph A. Downs was born at Wapello, Louisa County, Iowa. His mother having
died when he was an infant, he was reared by her people, received a
collegiate education and became a teacher by profession, practically spending
his entire life in the schoolroom and dying at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in
1900. He married Caroline J. Evans, daughter of Tillottson Fryatt and Jane
(Orr) Evans.
After graduating from the high school of Martinsburg, William Smith Downs
entered the West Virginia University, from which he was graduated in 1906
with the degree of B. S. C. E. and from that institution in 1915 received his
C. E. degree. Since leaving the university Mr. Downs has been continuously
identified with engineering concerns and interested in the development of the
state. During 1906-1907 he was chief draughtsman for the Morgantown &
Kingwood Railway, and from then for several years was associated
professionally with Julius K. Monroe at Kingwood. From 1911 to 1915 he was
engineer in charge of foundation investigation and resident engineer of the
Hydro-Electric Company at Cheat Haven, West Virginia. From 1915 to 1917 he
served as county road engineer for Monongalia County and since 1917 has
filled the office of division engineer of the West Virginia State Road
Commission.
On June 22, 1910, Mr. Downs married Miss Nellie J. Albright, who is a
daughter of L. M. and Jennie (Gibson) Albright, of Kingwood, West Virginia,
and they have three children: William Richard, born December 27, 1912; James
Albright, born February 18, 1914; and Jane, born September 25, 1918.
Mr. Downs has never cherished political ambitions but, nevertheless, is an
earnest, well informed citizen who gladly cooperates with others in advancing
the interests of his native section and state. He is well known in
engineering circles here and elsewhere and is a member of the American
Society of Civil Engineers.
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