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Saint Leo founder's granddaughter marks 103rd

By BETSY BOLGER-PAULET
Published December 7, 2006

Jessie T. Wichers Downing, granddaughter of the founder of San Antonio and Saint Leo College, east of Dade City, celebrated her 103rd anniversary with a party at Coral Oaks Assisted Living Facility in Palm Harbor, her home since 2003.

Jessie was born Nov. 30, 1903, in San Antonio. Her father was Anselm Wichers and her mother Mary H. Dunne Wichers. She had three sisters and two brothers, all now deceased, and attended local schools and Holy Name Academy in Tampa.

In 1926, while she was living at the YWCA in Tampa and working at Peninsula Telephone Co. in Tampa, she met Oscar H. Downing, who built batteries in Safety Harbor, where he was then living.

They were married at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tampa and moved into an apartment in Clearwater. Three years later, they settled into a home with three extra lots on Woodlawn Terrace, just north of Sunset Point.

Oscar then went to work for the city of Clearwater, where he retired in 1955 as supervisor of the gas and water department. Jessie worked 25 years for Pinellas County Title Co.

They raised two daughters, the late Frances F. Downing Donovan and Cecelia A. Downing Falzone, who now lives in Dallas; and a son, Thomas H. Downing of Tarpon Springs.

Even after Oscar died in 1987, Jessie stayed in her Clearwater home, where she continued to maintain the four greenhouses. She was well-known in the neighborhood for her flowering plants and especially her orchids, which she showed locally as an active member of the American Orchid Society. She was also active in the National Federation of Business and Professional Women.

Jessie, like her grandfather, Edmund F. Dunne, former chief justice of the Arizona territory, is a devoted Catholic. She and her late husband were founding members of St. Cecelia Catholic Church and she was active in the church's Women's Club.

Proud of her heritage, Jessie enjoys telling the story of how it was the church that brought her grandfather to this area and to the founding of the village of San Antonio and later Saint Leo College, now Saint Leo University.

It was on Feb. 15, 1882, that Jessie's grandfather and his cousin, Captain Hugh Dunne, walked up a pine-covered hill in what was then the southern part of Hernando County that looked down upon a large and exceptionally clear lake.

The explorers soon realized that government surveyors in 1845 had missed the lake and that the area was virtually uninhabited.

They drew a Latin prayer book from a pack and discovered that that particular day was the Feast of St. Jovita, and thus chose to name the lake in honor of that early Christian martyr.

Judge Dunne had long been disturbed over the discrimination Roman Catholics experienced in Ireland and the states and he was still smarting from the anti-Catholicism he had encountered in Arizona.

President Ulysses S. Grant had appointed him chief justice of the Arizona Territory, but upon realizing Dunne's legal position was that Catholics and other religious groups should receive tax funding for their schools, Grant forced the judge to resign.

So, after this insult, her grandfather decided to join other attorneys involved in negotiating the Disston purchase of 1881 but chose to take his attorney's fee in the form of an option to develop a tract of 100,000 acres rather than cash.

On discovering this uninhabited land with the jewel of a lake, the judge envisioned a settlement of Catholic civilization in Florida. He placed the center of the colony a short distance to the southwest of Lake Jovita then carefully planned the town, which he named "San Antonio" to honor St. Anthony of Padua in acknowledgment of an answered prayer.

In 1889, Judge Dunne conveyed much of the land to the order of St. Benedict and a small party of monks led by Father Charles Mohr, O. S. B., established a monastery and Catholic school and founded the town of St. Leo.

* * *

Golden anniversary celebrated in Largo

Frances and Howard Johnson of Largo celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a dinner reception hosted by their children at the Houghton House at William at Hobart-William Smith College, Geneva, N.Y.

They were married Nov. 10, 1956, at St. Mary of the Angels Church, Olean, N.Y., and came here in 1988 from Geneva.

Howard retired as manager of laboratory operations for Essilor Optical in St. Petersburg, and had formerly worked for Winchester Optical of New York State.

Frances was a school nurse in Geneva.

They have two children and two grandchildren.

The Johnsons are members of Christ Presbyterian Church, Largo. They are 18-year supporters of the Florida Orchestra and active members of the Pinellas County Historical Society and the Largo Historical Society.

Frances is a member of the Red Hat Society and they enjoy gardening, crafts and wood working.

For information or an anniversary form, call 727 445-4109. To submit an item to Good for You, write to Betsy Bolger-Paulet, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756. Fax to (717) 441-4119, or e-mail paulet@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 6, 2006, 22:49:32]