Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Downing, Colonel

DOWNING, Colonel, chief of the Cherokee Nation. After the death of his Indian wife he married, in 1871, Miss Ayers, a wealthy lady of Philadelphia, who removed with him to Talequah, devoting her life and fortune to the education of the Cherokees. She made her permanent home among the Indians, and adopted the son of the chief, Lewis Downing, for whom she built a handsome residence overlooking the village.