Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/318

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DOW

I)0\ENER, Blackburn Barrett, representa- tive, was born in Cal)eli eounty, Va., April 20, 1842. He rab»eil a coniiKiny of lc))-al Virginians and ser^-ed in the U.S. volimteer infantry, 1861- (>■». He was admitted to the Ijar in 1873 and l>raeti.se<l in Wheeling. "W.Va. He was elected a nieniU'r of the .state lej^islature in 1883; was an unsuccessful candidate for representative in the 53d congress; and a Republican representative from West Virginia in the r)4lli, 55tli, oGth, 57th and ."iSth congresses, 1895-1905.

DOW, Lorenzo, jiioneer Methodist, was born in Coventry. Cbnu., Oct. 16, 1777; son of Hvuu- plirey B. and Tabitha Dow. His education was limited to tiie instruction received at a district schix.l. His early religious convictions led liim to embrace the doctrines of the Methodists, al- though lie was opposed by his parents in this as well as in his determination to become a preacher. In 1796 he applied for admission to the Connecti- c-ut conference, but was refused. The confer- ence, however, received him in 1798, and in 1799 he was .sent to Cambridge, N.Y., and after a few months was transferred to Pittsfield, Mass., and from there to Es-sex, Vt., all within one year. His conviction of a divine call to preach to the Roman Catholics in Ireland imiielled him to visit that countr}- and he sailed late in 1799. On his appear- ance in Ireland his eccentricities in dress and speech led hundreds to liear him and he was jeered and in many ways severelj' persecuted. He re- turned the next year to America, preaching in New York, Alabama and at Louisville, Kj-. , but in 1805 revisited lx)tli England and Ireland, where he instituted the camp-meeting. This custom was such an innovation that it led to controversy, resulting in the organization of the Primitive Methodists in England. After he left the first time for Ireland he severed hLs official connec- tion with the ministry of the Methodist church, V)ut continued to promulgate the prominent doc- trines of Metliodisin throughout his life. His cru- sade against Roman Catliolicism was e.specially directed against the Jesuits, whom he denounced as enemies to pure religion and to republican govermnent. The prevalent opinion that he was of unsound mind detracted from the effect of his eloquence, and he was familiarly kno\%-n as " Cr.izy Dow.'' He was, nevertheless, a powerful orator, speaking to men unaccustomed to listen to ordinary preaching an<l reaching out to the utmost Ixjrders of civilization in the south and west, where he awakened much controversy and serious thouglit. His wife, Pegg\', to whom he was married in 1804, was his constant travelling comiMinion. She died at Hebron, Conn., Jan. 6, 1820. In the same year he married Lucy Dol- beare. He was a voluminous writer and among his published books are: Polemical Works (1814);

.1 Stran<if'r in Chorhston, or The Trial and Con- ftssion (if Lorenzo Dow (1822); A Short Account oj a Long Trard, With Beauties of Wesley (1823); .rournal and Miscellaneous Writings, edited by John Dowling (1836); and History of a Cosmopolite, o) Writings of the liev. Lorenzo Dow, Containing His Experience and Travels in Europe and, America up to Xear His Fiftieth Year, also His Polemic Writ- ings (1851), with numerous new editions. He died in Georgetown, D.C., Feb. 2, 1834.

DOW, Louis Henry, educator, was born in Lowell, Mass., April 1, 1872; son of Thomas E. and Mary J. (Burbeck) Dow; and grandson of Thomas E. and Frances (Brown) Dow, and of Samuel Noyes and Eliza Jane (Irving) Burbeck. He was prepared for college at the Lowell higli school and was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1890, and A.M., 1894. He was an instructor in Greek at Dartmouth, 1895-96, and a student at the Sorbonne, France, 1896-97. In 1896 he accepted the cliair of the French language at Dartmouth. He was married, July 16, 1896, to Rebecca Rum- rill of Springfield, Mass.

DOW, Neal, temperance reformer, was born in Portland, Maine, iMarch 20, 1804; son of Josiah and Dorcas (Allen) Do%v. His ancestors on both sides w^ere members of the Society of Friends. His first ancestor in ^Vmerica, Henry Dow, came from Norfolk countj', England, and settled in Hampton Falls, N.H., in 1637. Neal was edu- cated at public and private schools, at the Portland academy, and at the Friends' academ}'. New Bed- ford, Mass. He entered his father's tannery in 1819 and in due time was admitted to part- nership in the busi- ness, in which he remained until the death of his father in June, 1861. In early life he became interested in the temperance cau.se and later devoted liim.self to the work of changing the public opinion of the state upon the subject of .suppressing the liquor traffic. For several years lie made tours tlirougli the state delivering lectures on prohil)ition. In 1851 he was elected mayor of Portland and in May of that year he secured the passage of an anti-liquor bill in the Maine legislature. Within three years the meas- ure was adopted in MassachtLsetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and New York, and within a year or two more, in Connecticut and in .some of the western states. In 1855 he was again elected mayor. In 1853 the United Kingdom