lawyer, philanthropist, judge, b. Sharon, Vt. He attended Kimball Union College, Plainfield, N.H., and graduated from Dartmouth College (1838). He studied law in Louisville, Ky., and in 1842 settled in Milwaukee, where he began to practice law. In 1845 Downer was associated briefly with John S. Fillmore as publisher of the daily Milwaukee Sentinel. He was appointed associate justice of the state supreme court in 1864 to serve out the unexpired term of Byron Paine (q.v.), and in 1865 was elected to a regular term, but, disliking judicial duties, resigned in Sept., 1867. For the rest of his life Downer practiced law in Milwaukee, engaged in numerous business ventures, and became quite wealthy. He left the bulk of his estate to the Wisconsin Female College at Fox Lake, which was later moved to Milwaukee, combined with Milwaukee College, and renamed Milwaukee-Downer College. J. R. Berryman, ed., Bench and Bar of Wis. (2 vols., Chicago, 1898); J. B. Winslow, Story of a Great Court (Chicago, 1912); Wis. Reports, 60 (1884), pp. xxxi-xxxix; Milwaukee Sentinel, Sept. 2, 1883; WPA MS; J. Downer Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Jason Downer Papers for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]