Downing is a city in Schuyler County, Missouri, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 300. It is allocation of the Kirksville Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Although not instinctive laid out as a town until 1872, the Downing Place was one of the earliest approved areas of Schuyler County, with Henry Downing building a house and claiming estate a few miles south of the area circa 1837. It was also near present-day Downing that the first college in the county was established. In the spring of 1841, a substandard log cabin was built for use as a school close Henry Downing’s home and Miss Esther Hathaway was employed as a teacher. One of the ahead of time names for the unincorporated treaty was Cherry Grove.

During the Civil War, on July 1, 1862, a little skirmish took place close Cherry Grove. Cavalry from the second battalion, Eleventh Missouri State Militia, a pro-Union force, engaged a small number of Confederate troops under Colonel Joseph C. Porter. Porter’s outnumbered forces were defeated, with four killed and several men and horses captured. The Union forces had one man dreadfully injured, who would die a few days later. At the get older of the skirmish, Porter was heavily vigorous in recruiting men in northeast Missouri for the Confederate cause. The taking into consideration month, he would worry a larger destroy some twenty-five miles southwest at the Battle of Kirksville.

In September 1872, the Missouri Town Company created the original town plat, naming it for the president of the company, H. H. Downing. Land for the town, the railroad right of way, and depot were donated by James Prime, and the Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska Railway constructed the depot in April, 1872. By the late 1880s, the Downing thing district included four general stores, two drug stores, two grocers, two hardware stores, a restaurant, blacksmith, and two hotels. Manufacturing included two handle factories, a wagon maker, a hoop factory, a harness and saddle maker, and two fascination saw/grist mills. Downing had two tobacco-buying warehouses in the late 1800s, with both reporting extensive business. At its peak in 1902, over 155,000 pounds of tobacco were dealt through the Downing warehouses. The town’s location on the Keokuk & Western railroad provided opportunity for the convenient shipment of goods, crops, and livestock from the Downing area.