Bio: Downer, Ross (Citizen of the Year - 1971)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Downer, Nowack, McHone, Yankovic, Kleefisch, Koran, Dayton, Sandberg, Lee

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co, WI) 9/09/1971

Downer, Ross (Citizen of the Year - 1971)

Ross Downer, blacksmith in the village of Granton, will be honored as “Citizen of the Year” at the Granton Fall Festival September 17, 18, and 19, it was announced this week. The honor is conferred annually by the Granton people at their festival.

Born in 1912, in the Town of York, on the present Joe Chase farm, three miles north of Granton, he attended Romadka grade school and then wet to Neillsville High School so he could study vocational training and shop work which Granton did not have at that time. He remained on his father’s farm following high school and area people began to bring in their blacksmith work for him to fix.

His first paid job was sharpening a set of plow points for Clarence Nowack of Granton, who died last month. He received $1 for the job, which today costs around $3.75.

He comes by blacksmithing naturally as his uncles, who were the McHones, were great blacksmiths.

An early venture of Ross Downer was the making of snow fence. He made carloads of it and shipped it as far away as Pennsylvania. It was made on a weaver he designed and he made one-half mile of fence a day. He did this for seven years until the war came along and he could no longer receive wire.

Then he started a portable saw-mill and sawed lumber for farmers all over central Wisconsin. Today many barns in this area are made of lumber he sawed.

In 1947 he moved to Granton in his present location and built his blacksmith shop. Today, as from the start, his greatest job is hammering, sharpening and tempering plow points. He has over 250 sets waiting in his shop to be sharpened now. Few blacksmiths today are able to do all three hobs and therefore, he gets work as far away as Fairchild, Thorp, Milladore and Pittsville.

The real reason he is being honored is that area people appreciate the fortitude he has exemplified. Twice in recent years his shop has burned to the ground. Each time he arose to the occasion and rebuilt. The first fire was in February, 1966, resulting from a leaking acetylene tank. The last fire was in February, 1971, created by a short in the electrical entrance box.

Today a new green 44 x 50-foot shop stands on the old shop location.

Following the second fire, Downer was not sure whether he should rebuild. He went to Marshfield and found employment as a welder, but central Wisconsin farmers begged him to start again. As one farmer remarked, “We can’t operate without Ross Downer.”

Downer is too busy for many hobbies, but he really enjoys playing his banjo, which he bought from Frankie Yankovic. He plays by ear and has played in dance bands all over Wisconsin. He knows most of the big time, old-time dance band leaders and he says his greatest achievement in music is that “he has never lost his banjo.”

He was married in 1934 to Meta Kleefisch of Plymouth. They have four children and 15 grandchildren. Their children are: Anna Mae Koran, Marshfield; Doris Dayton, Waupaca; Beatrice Sandberg, Minneapolis; and Betty Lee, Deerfield. One grandchild, Randy Koran, has helped his grandfather for the last several summers and hopes someday to be a blacksmith like his grandfather.

Downer and his wife, Meta, will ride in the Granton Fall Festival parade Sunday, September 19, as the “Citizen of the Year.” -- F.S. (initials believed to be of Francis Steiner)