The meager information which has come to us regarding this worthy man can give no adequate conception of his character and work. He was active and zealous for the truth. At the beginning of the half-century, whose close we now celebrate, he was one of the first on whose head the Presbytery laid its hands, and fortunate will it be for her if during the half-century now upon us, God, in answer to the prayers of her people, sends forth a multitude of such laborers into the harvets. While yet a probationer Mr. Downey rode upon the circuit, and he afterwards located near Fort Branch, where he preached acceptably to the people. Several years were spent with Shiloh congregation, when he removed to Newburgh for the purpose of educating his children at Delaney Academy. While there he died, and in the cemetery near by his remains await the resurrection call. Mr. Downey was not a great preacher, but he was a good one, and he never closed a sermon without apparently making an impression that would abide. His career closed May 17th, 1848, when he was but a few days more than forty-nine years of age.

[Source: Darby, Rev. W. J. and Rev. J. E. Jenkins. Cumberland Presbyterianism in Southern Indiana: Being a History of Indiana Presbytery and an Account of the Proceedings of its Fiftieth Anniversary Held at Princeton, Indiana, April 13-18, 1876, Together with Various Addresses and Communications, and a Sermon on the Doctrines of the Church. Published by the Presbytery, 1876, page 55]