A HISTORY OF THE DAVIESS-McLEAN BAPTIST ASSOCIATION IN KENTUCKY, 1844-1943
by Wendell H. Rone, Probably published in 1944 by Messenger Job Printing 
Co., Inc., Owensboro, Kentucky. Used by permission.  p. 258-260.  McLean

     THOMAS DOWNS: (Photo of Thomas Downs  monument)  Perhaps no one 
figured more largely in the planting of the Baptist cause in this section
than the one whose name appears at the head of this sketch. Thomas Downs 
is indeed one of the founding fathers of this Association.  His name was a 
household word among the Baptists of the Green River Country for four 
generations.  His parents were among the first settlers in this country.  
Their first stop was at Barnett's Station near Hartford and still later 
they moved to Fort Vienna (Calhoun).  His father was killed by the Indians 
and scalped while hunting for his horses on the outskirts of the Fort at 
Vienna, about the year 1792.  Their first settlement was made in 1782, at 
Barnett's Station near the present site of the town of Hartford.  Young 
Downs was then about 9 years old having been born in Pennsylvania on
August 3, 1773.
     
     The first record of Thomas Downs that we have is as clerk of the old 
Hazel Creek Church in Muhlenberg County, Ky., which office he held from 
June, 1800, to about the year 1815.  He served as Messenger from this Church
to the old Union Association in 1808 and again as the same to the Gasper 
River Association at its formation in 1812.  After moving his membership to 
Rock Spring (Yelvington) he served as Messenger to the same association in 
1816, 1817 and l818.  When Goshen Association was organized in 1817 we find 
Thomas Downs present at the meeting.  Having been ordained by the Hazel 
Creek Church as deacon on September 5, 1805, he was licensed to preach by the
same Church in 1808.  His ordination took place sometime before the year 1816.
We have found no record of this.  As has already been noted Brother Downs 
moved his membership to Rock Spring (Yelvington) in 1815.  In 1824, he; with 
his wife, four daughters, his son and his son's wife united with the Green
Briar Church in Daviess County where he held membership until his death in 
1850.  He became pastor of the Yelvington Church (then called Rock Spring) 
in June, 1816, and remained twenty-six years, until May, 1842. His pastorate 
at Green Briar lasted from 1820 to 1850, the last two years he was too feeble 
for active work, but was retained as pastor emeritus.  He served Buck Creek
Church from 1824 to 1840; Bell's Run from 1822 to 1824. Ohio Church in 
Southern Indiana near Rockport enjoyed his pastoral care for a time and 
perhaps several other Churches for shorter periods of time but we have no 
record of them.

     His work was not so much that of pastor as of an indefatigable pioneer 
Missionary.  He bore the standard of the Cross to the settlers on both sides 
of the Ohio River, from the mouth of Green River up the Ohio for 100 miles 
and over a belt of country 100 miles wide.  In this region he gathered many 
of the early churches and supplied them with occasional preaching until the 
Lord raised up someone to take his place.  From first to last we have record 
of the following churches that he assisted in constituting: Green Briar, 1820; 
Owensboro First, 1835; Pleasant Grove, 1835; Blackford, 1825; Mt. Liberty, 
1840; Brushy Fork, 1846; Mt. Carmel, 1849; and Macedonia, 1849. No doubt there
were others but alas we are short on records.

     Brother Downs married Rebecka Saulsberry in 1798.  She came from 
Louden (sic) County, Virginia, and was born in the year 1774.  Her death 
occurred in February, 1844.  This pioneer couple reared a large family, all 
girls but one.  He was so extremely poor that he had to do much of his 
traveling on foot, and often barefoot.  "Many a time," writes his successor 
in the pastorate, "he has plowed hard for five days in the week, and then 
walked from Green Briar to Yelvington, a distance of twenty-five miles,
and preached two hours, shoeless and coatless; sometime to but few hearers, 
and once to only three sisters."  Such was the labor and lot of this good 
man during a ministry of almost fifty years.  He endured many severe domestic 
trials in life.  As has already been said he lost his father in 1792.  After 
he raised his large family his only son, William, was found hung to a tree
limb already dead, probably a suicide.  This was in 1848.  About the same 
time several of his children died of milk fever within a short time.  But 
these trials never swerved him from his path of duty and with unfaltering 
step he pressed on with faith and trust in God.  In his history of Green 
Briar Church written in 1920, Elder John A. Bennett has this to say about
Thomas Downs:  "He was one of the great pioneer preachers of the Green River 
Country.  Without educational equipment he became a theologian. Handicapped 
by poverty and contradicted by heresy, ignorance, and anti-missionism, and 
fought by the world, the flesh, and the devil, he triumphed, held the Church 
on the solid rock of Bible truth and laid the foundation on which his 
successors have built."

     When Elder Downs commenced his ministry there were but a few small 
Churches in the field of his subsequent labors; when he closed his ministry 
the same field was flourishing with six large and populous Associations.  
Four of them in Kentucky and two in Southern Indiana.  In November, 1844, he 
went into the constitution of the Daviess County Association.  At this 
meeting, in all due honor to this aged pioneer servant of Christ, his 
brethren called upon him to preach the Introductory sermon.  He was also 
called to the Moderator's Chair and presided until his successor was chosen 
as the first Moderator of the new Association: Elder John Graves Howard.

     In the closing years of his life he became very corpulent and helpless.  
But such was the attachment of his brethren to their aged pastor, that they 
would convey him to Green Briar meeting-house and place him in a chair, 
where he, like the Apostle John, would exhort them to love one another and 
talk to them about the love of God.  He was called from earthly toil and 
care on  February 8, 1850. His body was laid to rest beside that of his wife 
in a little plot of ground located about 500 yards southwest of the present 
cross-roads at Nuckols, Ky., on Highway 75.  A large and spreading beech 
tree now marks the spot where he lies. Daviess County Association owes a 
debt of gratitude to this untiring servant of God that she can never repay.  
"Father" Downs, as he was called in his elderly years, by those who knew 
and loved him, left a testimony behind that is unequaled in all the history 
of the Association.  In labors abundant; in perils many; in faithfulness 
unexcelled. We know that we will meet Thomas Downs in Heaven.

Downs Saulsberry Bennett Howard
=
PA Muhlenberg-KY Davies-KY IN Loudon-VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/daviess/downs.t.txt