DOWNEY--The Dismukes House which has been moved and beautifully restored in Apollo Park behind the Historical Society, is typical of the early settlement homes of early Downey.
Built in 1887 it was somewhat more luxurious than were earlier structures, but still representative of the style and methods of construction. Walls were usually pine or redwood with pieces of tin nailed over the knotholes. Spaces between the boards were chinked or battened, then the whole sealed with whitewash.
Most homes were two main rooms and a kitchen. Windows were usually shuttered to keep out the driving rain.
John Downey organized the Downey Land Association in 1874. It operated a tract of about 100 acres of what had been Rancho Santa Gertrudes. Some 300 homes were built here on Downey tract lands.
An old picture of the Dismukes home shows a man and a woman with two children. The woman holds the children while the man holds the bridles of two horses. The value of the animals cannot be fully appreciated in our own mechanized times.
In the 1870s and 1880s a horse meant transportation and the ability to work the fields, an ability that meant a good living could be wrung from the fertile soil of Downey's plain.
It was an atmosphere in which hard work could win a family a living from the land, and even the promise of something extra.
In addition to the Dismukes home, a clue to old Downey are fire insurance ledgers found in an attic of a building that was scheduled for demolition here.
One of these lists the business of the Commercial Union Insurance Company, Limited, of London, England. The dates cover 1884 to 1906.
The Daily Fire Report form for the company which is dated 1906 reads, "Never insure property that is not profitable to the owner. Never insure a stranger without full investigation and satisfactory evidence as to his antecedents."
In 1890 and again in 1905 agents were asked to shun certain risks, including bakeries, broom factories, Chinese and buildings occupied by them, glue factories and woolen mills.
What the Chinese residents had done to alienate the insurance company is not detailed.
Between 1884 and 1905 buildings in Downey included an agricultural implement store, a bakery, beer parlor, blacksmith shop, carpenter shop, citrus packing house, dental office, hotel, liquor store, livery stable, millinery shop, paint shop, post office, school, saloon and billiard hall, fraternal club, general stores, grain warehouse, social and athletic club, and the insurance agency.
The warning about not insuring bakeries proved to be right. It burned on May 17, 1900.
Domestic items listed as insured in the ledgers included organs, books, art, pianos and sewing machines. There were at least four pianos in town. Three were in the homes of F. L. Floyd, W. C. Smith, and a Mrs. Benbrook, and a fourth was in the Los Nietos Lodge #197, IOOF.
Our source of information ends due to the San Francisco Fire of 1906, which caused the insurers to close their office. A note read, "Owing to the conflagration in San Francisco, most of the records of our office have been destroyed. Agents will oblige by sending us at once copies (on daily report blanks) of all the risks in force at their agencies."
The great quake and fire proved too much. The London based firm, and many others too, suffered such massive setbacks from the disaster that they re-grouped. But their ledgers were left behind to reveal valuable details of the history of old Downey.
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