New Hampshire Individuals of Note

In May 1813 Lewis Downing came to Concord, New Hampshire, and set up a wheel and carriage repair shop on Main St. where he repaired all kinds of wooden items.  By 1815 he was building wagons which were referred to as Concord wagons.  He did the wood parts and then sent the wagons to the State Prison to have the metal parts attached.  Apparently his dream, perhaps inspired by his father-in-law, Jonathan Wheelock, a coach driver, was to build an improved coach.  Although his business had grown and he had apprentices working for him, Downing sought another worker who could help him in the design of the new coach.  J. Stephen Abbott joined Downing in1826 and the first Concord Coach appeared in 1827.  It is difficult to know what the contributions of each man were to the project, and today we refer to the coach as the product of the Abbott-Downing Company, although in 1847 the Abbott and Downing Co. split into two separate companies and remained so until Lewis Downing retired in 1865.  His sons then merged the two companies creating Abbott, Downing and Company.  Over the years the dependability of workmanship, design, interchangeable parts, such as wheels, all maintained the reputation of the products regardless of the company name and organization. 

Also, Downing advertised effectively.  From the start of his work in Concord, he advertised in the local papers, and later he took trips West to advertise his products and the company set up offices in several cities including New York, Boston, St. Louis, and San Francisco. 

After the Mexican War there were new markets for coaches in the west.  During the Civil War the companies supplied ambulances, wagons, and gun carriages for the North. Abbott and Downing supplied the coaches for the first railroad train, fitting special wheels onto the coaches.  When cities began building street railroads, Abbott and Downing built the cars to be pulled on the tracks.  Thus, throughout the century, the company responded to new opportunities and remained one of New Hampshire’s primary manufacturers.  However, with the advent of the gas-driven automobile, although the company made some motor driven vehicles, they were not able to compete in the new industry and went out of business by 1928.  Only one of the original buildings on Main St. remains.  It now houses a bakery.  There is an Historical New Hampshire sign on South Main St., Concord, at the site of the factory.

Lewis Downing was born in Lexington, Massachusetts one of seven children of Samuel and Susanna Brown Downing.  His father was a carriage maker.  Lewis was trained as a wheelwright by his father and older brother.  His half-brother, Andrew, was a noted architect and horticulturist, and designed the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. 

On May 15, 1815 Lewis married Lucy Wheelock in Concord, Massachusetts.  She was the only child of Jonathan and Lucy Beaman Wheelock.  Lewis and Lucy Downing had six children born between 1818 and 1828.  The two boys became partners with their father and carried on the business after Lewis retired, establishing three generations of carriage makers lasting over 125 years. 

In 1865 the Concord Daily Monitor referred to Lewis as, "Concord’s best benefactor."  He was a strong Republican and served in the legislature in 1865-6. He was one of the founders of the Unitarian Society in Concord.  Lewis Downing had a reputation for skill, sagacity, and integrity.  He was "positive and self reliant in his convictions and opposed others (views) with blunt sincerity" according to the author of his biography in The History of  Merrimack and Belknap Counties.  Lewis Downing died on March 10,1873 after a long illness.

WOK 

Scheiber, Harry N.  Abbott-Downing and the Concord Coach.  Concord, NH: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1989.