WILLIAM H. DOWNS was born in Ross County, Ohio, June 25, 1843, and is the son of Samuel and Ann (Hiries) Downs, both natives of Ohio. He came with his parents to Tippecanoe County. this State, in 1848, and to Union Township, this county, in 1852, where he resided until August 2, 1862, when he enlisted in Company G, Seventy-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry ; was mustered in at South Bend and was assigned to the Fourteenth Army Corps, under Gen. Crittenden. He fought at Chaplin's Hill, Murfreesboro, Decatur and Athens. At Mill Creek, he was accidentally injured by the fall of a stockade, from the effect of which he was confined in the hospital three weeks. In June, 1865, he was honorably discharged, and came at once to Carroll County, where lie lived on rented land a number of years, and then came to this township and purchased forty acres, a part of his present home, which he has since increased to ninety-nine acres, all in a good state of cultivation. In September, 1866. he married- Miss Rachel Hammil, who was born in May, 1846, in Carroll County, Ind., and who is the daughter of James H. and Nancy (Montgomery) Hammil, both natives of Tennessee. Six children were born to this union, viz.: Edwin, Frank, Charles, Harrison, Samuel and Harvey. In politics, Mr. Downs is a Republican, and both he and wife are members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

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