John Bush "Bush" Downen 1862 - 1937
I had first written this article in 2011 but I am looking at it again in 2021 and a few new things have come to light so I am making some changes to the article for the first time in 10 years.
Bush was the son of Timothy Downen (1830-1927) and Rachel Mills (1831-1866). He was born 7 February 1862 in Posey County, Indiana, USA.
He married Mary Utley (ca. 1862 - After 1880) on 25 July 1880 in Posey County. They had the following child:
Stella Mae Downen (1880-1952)
He married Cornelia Buchanan (1857-1892) on 28 December 1882 in Posey County. They had the following children:
Omar Downen (1886-1887)
Ethel Downen (1888-1979)(Had this as 1985 but that is apparently wrong)
Lois Downen (1891-1892)
He married
Elizabeth Melvina Barnett Crunk (1861-1897) on 18 September 1892 in Posey County. They had the following child:
James Emmett AKA Emmett Downen (1893-1972)
He married Lula Nell Hollis Florida Ramsey on 2 March 1898 in White County, Illinois. They had the following child:
Worthy Downen (1900-1974)(Originally had her death as "After 1942" but I later found the actual date)
The first census that Bush showed up in was the 1870 one, in Robinson Township of Posey County. His mother Rachel died in 1866 and his father remarried Mary E. Keeling, who is found with much of the rest of the family in the 1870 census. (census image here) (View neighbors in html)
John was still living at home as of the 1880 census in Robinson Township. His older brother Joseph had gotten married and had two children, but then Joseph's wife Ellen died and Joseph moved back in along with his infant daughter, although his infant son was staying with relatives in Gallatin County, Illinois. (census image here)
Bush married Mary (or Molly) Utley in 1880, within a couple of months of the census being taken. I'm not sure what happened to Mary after the birth of their daughter Stella, it seems likely that she died but I can't find her in the Posey County death records or cemetery records. In any event, Bush married again in 1882, this time to Cornelia Buchanan. The couple had at least three children, but only one (Ethel) survived to adulthood. At some point in the 1880s Bush and his family moved to Gallatin County, Illinois, definitely by the time daughter Ethel was born in 1888.
Cornelia died in 1892 and Bush remarried the same year to Elizabeth Barnett. The couple had Bush's only son to live to adulthood, Emmett, but Elizabeth died in 1897 and is buried in Asbury Cemetery in Gallatin County.
Bush remarried for the last time in 1898, to Lulu (nee Hollis) Florida Ramsey, a twice widowed woman from Indiana with a daughter of her own from one of her previous marriages. The composition of the family that shows up in the 1900 census in Asbury Township of Gallatin County is quite interesting. Bush and Lulu, of course; his and Cornelia's daughter Ethel; his and Elizabeth's son Emmett; Lulu's daughter Georgia Florida; Bush and Lulu's daughter Worthy; and a 23 year old boarder named Virgil Carney. The only person missing was Stella, who I have not been able to locate in the 1900 census although she married William Blackard in 1901. (census image here)
By the time of the 1910 census (still in Asbury Township) the only change in personnel was that the boarder Virgil was gone; all four of the children who were there in 1900 were still there in 1910. The only strange thing I have found is that Ethel appears in two places in the census in 1910; this is odd but not unheard of. I will have to do more research on this, though, since it is possible there has been what we call in technical terms a "mistake" in the tree and she did not actually marry the person I thought she married. (census image here)
(This paragraph added in 2021). It seems pretty clear that Ethel did in fact marry George W Smith between 1910 and 1912, there is too much documentary evidence for this not to be the case. I did find out that someone on Ancestry had mixed up Ethel with a completely different person, and that may be why there has been some confusion. I've documented what I found on Ethel's page.
Between 1910 and 1920 all the kids moved away. Ethel too, although there was some doubt about that at one time. Emmett married Linnie Armstrong and was living with her and their two children in Asbury Township. Worthy married Lewis Chauncey Dagley and the two of them were living in White County. Georgia married Silas Freeman Smith and was living nearby in Omaha Township in Gallatin County. So in 1920 Bush and Lulu showed up as just a couple in the census for the first time, still in Asbury Township. (census image here)
1930 would be the last census that Bush and Lulu appeared together in, still in Asbury Township. (census image here)
Bush died on 26 March 1937 in Gallatin County at the age of 75 and was buried in Asbury Cemetery. He was not buried next to Elizabeth, she was buried next to her first husband Joel Crunk. But when Lulu died in 1958 she was placed next to Bush in Asbury Cemetery.
Other Links
John Bush Downen page at Find A Grave
John "Bush" Downen on Genealogy Locator System
John "Bush" Downen on Family Search Dot Org
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