Frederick Anson Downes was born in the Waterville section of Waterbury, Connecticut, a member of the fourth generation that lived on Sheffield Street of Thomaston Avenue.  The image at left show the Downs/Downes properties in blue (note that it was within these generations that the spelling of the name changed from Downs to Downes, at least in my lineage).  He died in Merchantville, New Jersey on 

Frederick’s great grandfather David Downs, my 4x great, lived at the top of Sheffield Street with his wife, Mary Chatterton Downs where he operated a saw mill.  David’s son Anson built a house down at the corner of Sheffield and Thomaston where the next three generations lived.  Frederick’s brothers and sister were the last to live here. David’s property would be beyond the upper right of the image.  

From the Encyclopedia of Biography, Pennsylvania:  

Frederick Anson Downes, son of Elmore Allucius and Martha Elizabeth (Stevens) Downes, was born in Waterville, Connecticut, October 9, 1863. He received his education in the public schools of Providence, Rhode Island, and Yonkers, New York, finishing at Mason’s Military Academy in the latter city.

Mr. Downes made his entry in a business career in New York City as an engineer and draftsman in the employ of the Providence Steam and Gas Pipe Company, of Providence, Rhode Island, (now the Grinnell Automatic Sprinkler Company). He next was given charge of that company’s Philadelphia office and factory. In 1882 he entered the manufacturing business in the employ of V. Henry Rothschild & Company, of New York. He later transferred to that firm’s branch factory at Richmond, Virginia, of which he was given charge.

The really great work for which Mr. Downes is best known in the business world called him in 1884, when he entered the insurance field as a clerk in the office of the Keystone Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of Philadelphia, of which his father was secretary. He succeeded the elder Downes as secretary in 1888, and in 1903 he became president, treasurer and director. In 1888 he established the firm of F. A. Downes & Company (later F. A. Downes & Son), who conduct an extensive insurance agency and brokerage business.  In 1892 he organized the Standard Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, which he became secretary. He retired from that company in 1894 to organize the Manton Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, becoming its secretary and was elected president, treasurer and director in 1905. In 1893 he organized the Mercantile Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, of which he became secretary, and this concern did an extensive business throughout the United States insuring mercantile hazards.

In 1898, Mr. Downes broadened his field when he purchased a controlling interest in the Merchantville Light, Heat and Power Company, which controlled the gas and electric lighting of Merchantville, Pensauken, Dudley and Stockton (*the latter two towns now a part of Camden, New Jersey), of which he became presiee3nt and treasurer. In 1899, he consolidated, under the title of the Camden and Burlington Gas and Electric Company, the Merchantville, Light, Heat and Power Company, the Haddonfield (New Jersey) Light, Heat and Power Company, the Moorestown (New Jersey) Electric Light Company, the Mount Holly (New Hersey) Electric Light and Power Company, which latter company owned in conjunction with its electric light plant the horse-car line in Mount Holly, waterpower and several manufacturing plants.

He later assisted in the purchase of the electric light plant and gas plant at Camden New Jersey; the gas plant and electric light plant at Gloucester City, New Jersey, and the Camden-Gloucester and Woodbury Street Railway, which were reconsolidated with the Camden and Burlington Gas and Electric Company, under the title of the South Jersey Gas, Electric and Traction Company, now owned by the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey.

In 1901, Mr. Downes organized the National Mutual Assurance Company of Philadelphia, of which he became president and treasurer. In 1904 he organized for the Cotton Seed Crushers Association, a mutual fire insurance company in which the leading cotton seed oil manufacturers were interested, and which became known as the Cotton Seed Crushers Mutual Assurance Company, which specialized in the underwriting of cotton seed oil mills and fertilizer manufacturing and warehouse plants. Of this company he was made president and treasurer. In 1907 he organized for the National Fertilizer Association the South States Mutual Fire Insurance Company to specialize in the underwriting of fertilizer manufacturing plant and warehouses exclusively, and of which he became president and treasurer. He subsequently consolidated the Cotton Seed Crushers Mutual Assurance Company and the Southern States Mutual Fire Insurance Company into one organization and changed the name to the Atlantic Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Philadelphia, of which he was elected president and treasurer.

In 1907 Mr. Downes and his associates purchased a controlling interest in the Atlantic Radiator Company, which owned a large plant at Huntington, Pennsylvania, and he became its president.  In 1916 he and his associate, Mr. William T. Elliott, president of the National Bank of Philadelphia, purchased a controlling interest in the Commercial Box and Envelope Company, which owned a large plant in Chester, Pennsylvania and of which he became president and general manager.

Mr. Downes has now disposed of all his outside interests and is confining his operations exclusively to his insurance and banking business. In addition to being the executive and financial head of Keystone Mutual Fire Insurance Company, he is director and member of the finance committee of the Franklin Trust Company of Philadelphia. Through his very extensive associations with so many and important corporations and consolidation of interests in the Middle Atlantic and Southern States, he has risen to the status of one of the most expert representatives in the fields in which he and his associates operated. In the realm of fire insurance he is recognized as one of the most important factors in Pennsylvania.

In political affairs Mr. Downes lends his influence and support to the Republican party. In fraternal life he has attained the thirty-second degree Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, and affiliates with Lu Lu Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles and the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Associates, the National Geographic Society and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. His clubs are the Union League, the Art, and the Pen and Pencil, all of Philadelphia. His religious connection is with the Episcopalian denomination. His chief recreations are motoring and yachting, and he derives both pleasure and profit in oversight of his farming and stock-raising enterprises, in which he finds a welcome diversion from his exacting business activities.

Frederick Anson Downes married (first), June 20, 1888, at Camden, New Jersey, Mary H. Burgess, daughter of Wright and Ann Beeley (Hide) Burgess.  She died, and Mr. Downes married (second), , April 7, 1915, at Merchantville, New Jersey, Catherine M. Maher, daughter of Michael and Mary Alice (Power) Maher. Children, all of the first marriage: (1) Arline, born in Mary of 18909. (2) Ralph Anson. 3. Thelma Elizabeth and (4) Helen Anna, born in 1903 (twins). Mr Downes and his family make their winter residence at No. 144 Kings Highway West, Haddonfield, New Jersey, and their summer at “Elmcrest”, their beautiful country place near Marlton, New Jersey. His official headquarters are in the Franklin Trust Building, Philadelphia.

The magnitude, diversity and large areas of operation of the organizations with which Mr. Downes has or continues to be identified furnish a close insight into the ability of  this organizing and executive genius. His has been a real and constructive service over a considerable territory of the Eastern and Southern sections of the United States. Philadelphia claims him as one of her outstanding representative men in the insurance and financial fields which had so signally dignified.

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