Joseph Edward Downing

Joseph Edward Downing was a Cherokee man

Oral History

"I was born March 22, 1883, near the town of Texanna, Canadian District, Cherokee Nation. My father was Joe Downing, Cherokee, the son of Lewis Downing, Cherokee. My mother was Kate (Guess Downing, the daughter of Teasy Guess, the son of George Guese, or Sequoyah.

There were six children born to my parents. Nannie Downing was married to Richard Boles; after the death of
Richard Bolts she married James L. McClure. Lucile Downing was married to Zannie L. Gargill. Maud Downing was married! to Robert L. Mickle. Teasy, George, and Joseph Edward Downing were the boys.

My sister, Maud (Downing) Mickle., and myself are the only surviving members of the family though I do not know the whereabouts of my sister at the present. I was reared in the immediate vicinity of my birth-place

In 1921 I was married to Willie Murry, Cherokee, the daughter of William and Ida Waspeaker of near Texanna. My wife died In 1926. My mother was a sister of Sallia (Guess) Fields, the wife of William Fields who were the parents of Susan (Fields) Toney, my cousin.

My grandfather, Teasy Guess, died in the Dutch Greek settlement in 1869 and was buried in the old Cherokee burial ground two and one half miles southeast of Texanna."
---Joseph Edward Downing, July 13, 1937

Source: Buchanan, J. S. (1937, July 13). Interview with Joseph Edward Downing 6752. The University of Oklahoma Libraries. other. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/cdm/ref/collection/indianpp/id/7597/.
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More About EDWARD DOWNING:

• 1890 Census [CN]: Canadian, 1020
• 1902-07 Dawes roll: card# 2180, roll# 5644
• 1906-09 Miller roll: Texanna, OK, ap# 13509, roll# 9907
• Blood: Full Blood Cherokee
• Starr's Notes: C172