Annie Sawyer Downs
Nationally published writer, poet and well-known botanist.
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In today’s History Buzz I would like to introduce you to a fascinating woman who called Andover home for many years, Annie Sawyer Downs.
HE FOUGHT THE FIGHT, HE KEPT THE STEP,
LOYAL, AND BRAVE AND TRUE,
FOR A FREE LAND HE PAID THE PRICE
COMRADES, THAT DAY FOR YOU.
These words, written by Annie Sawyer Downs, can be found on the Revolutionary War Monument located on Central Street. This stanza comes from a much longer poem, Historic Andover, that Annie Sawyer Downs wrote for Andover’s 250th birthday. *
Who was Annie Sawyer Downs? She was a nationally published writer, poet and a well-known botanist.
She was born in 1837 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Her family moved to Concord, Massachusetts where they lived for about 10 years before moving to Haverhill, Massachusetts. Annie attended Bradford College.
She married Professor Samuel Morse Downs, and they moved to 84 Main Street in Andover where her husband taught music at Abbot Academy. The Downs Family owned this property from 1878-1910.
Annie was a writer and had a lifelong interest in botany. Her love of nature might have been fostered by her friendship as a child with Henry David Thoreau when she lived in Concord. Annie is credited with creating the library on Southwest Harbor, Mount Desert Island in Maine where she and her husband had a home.
The Southwest Harbor Public Library was built in 1895, although its history goes back to 1884, the year Mrs. Annie Sawyer Downs gathered some discarded books from the summer hotels and placed them on a shelf in a corner of Dr. R. J. Lemont’s drug store, which was located on Clark Point Road.
She is also known for discovering the white rhodora plant on Mount Desert Island which is included in Edward Rand’s book, The Flora of Mount Desert Island. Her white rhodora specimen can be found at the Harvard Herbarium
In 1892, in a short essay titled “How I Botanize,” Southwest Harbor summer resident Annie Sawyer Downs outlines her own packing list for botanical field work.
“The things I provide myself with when I go botanizing are a pocketknife, a pair of scissors in a case, a little ball of soft string and a tin box, which is carried by a strap over my shoulder. I wear a plain skirt, short and full, a round hat with a rim wide enough for shade, a pair of strong gloves with gauntlets, and shoes of sensible thickness, with broad soles and low heels.”
She enjoyed sharing her knowledge about flowers with the members of the November Club where she was a member.
At a regular meeting of the November Club on Feb 9 the ladies were most agreeably entertained by a talk on “The Flora of Andover” presented by Mrs. Annie Sawyer Downs
She wrote a ballad called George Washington’s Kiss which was about Washington’s visit in 1789 to Andover. She read the 10-stanza ballad at a meeting of the November Club in 1890. One part tells the story of Priscilla Abbott mending George Washington’s glove.
It reads in part,
An honored guest at her father’s inn, **
He was turning to leave the door.
When he noticed in his riding glove of tan
A rent (a tear in fabric) never seen before.
And looking surprised he caught her smile
“You knew it, I think,” he said.
“That you will mend It, I am almost sure
For you have needle and thread.”
Another part of Annie’s life here in Andover was her time at Abbot Academy as a lecturer. According to Abbot Academy Historian Jane B. Carpenter---
“Her fascinating stories of her childhood among the celebrities of Concord and of her treasured visit to George Eliot gave to some students certainly their first feeling that these worthies were real people. In the same way her glowing descriptions of English cathedrals opened doors in young minds that were never closed again.”
Annie Sawyer Downs was a woman of many talents. She loved nature and history and shared this love in her writings and teaching.
Annie Sawyer Downs died in 1901 and is buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
*The complete Historic Andover poem can be found in the book Andover What It Was, What It Is published for the 300th anniversary in 1946.
Thanks for reading!
Barbara
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** The Abbott Inn was located at 70 Elm Street in Andover
Sources
Andover Preservation Website
Andover Center for History and Culture Files
Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie, The Changing Flora of Mount Desert Island
Carpenter, Jane, B. Abbot Academy in the Early Years
Ms Downs is a fascinating woman. Nice article. Barbara.
She’s one of my favorites!! She also wrote a poem describing the atmosphere of Andover’s «home front » during the Battle of Bunker Hill. She was very sensitive.