Brooks Downing describes himself as “a ninth-generation Lexingtonian.” He says his family’s roots in Lexington go back to the presidency of George Washington.
“Fort days,” he said with a chuckle. “It goes back to, like, the old fort days.”
Francis Downing left Yorkshire, England, before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He settled in Baltimore before going west in 1785 to the town of Limestone, which is the modern day Maysville.
It was a relatively short journey for family members to migrate to Lexington, which was founded in 1775 and named for the colonists’ Revolutionary War victory over the British in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.