My Genealogy Hound

W. S. Downs, blacksmith, and one of the skillful workmen of the county, is a native of Georgia, born in 1848, and the son of Shelly Downs, who was born in Virginia. The latter was married in his native State, and afterward moved to Georgia, where the mother died shortly afterward, and where the father died in 1861, leaving a family of three children. W. S. Downs was but thirteen years of age when his father died, and for three years after this, and during the war, he drove a team from Atlanta to Bowden, Ga., and was with his teams near Franklin, Ga. (which is 100 miles from Atlanta), when that city fell into the hands of the Federal troops. At the age of sixteen Mr. Downs went to work to learn the carriage and wagon-maker’s trade with the firm of J. W. Downs, and afterward with Downs & Langford, at Conyers, Ga., remaining in their employ for three years. He then came to Clay County, Ark., where he has resided ever since, with the exception of about three years, two of which he spent in New Madrid, Mo., and one year at his old home, where he worked for Mr. Langford, who was carrying on the same business. During his stay here six years were spent in the mill business, the second steam-mill in the county, and he afterward followed farming until about 1888, when he opened up his old business in Boydsville. He has built a shop for general repair work, and is having a fair trade. He was married in 1869 to Miss Martha A. Arnold, daughter of Andrew Arnold, of Clay County (but which at that time was Greene County), and nine children have been the result of this union, eight now living. They are named as follows: Lenora J., wife of J. A. Burton, of Tennessee, and the mother of one child; J. H., at home attending the farm; L. R., at home; William E., J. B., Florence A., Matthew A. and Alvin Shelly, who is named after his grandfather. Mr. and Mrs. Downs are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and he is a Democrat in politics.