Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/56

 LOWE

LOWE

introduced many changes in the election laws and other reforms. He was appointed U.S. minister to China in 1857 by President Buchanan, but declined the office. He was a presidential elector in 1861, voting for Breckinridge and Lane. He removed to Brooklyn, N.Y.. in 1886, and practised law in tliat city until his death, which occurred in Brooklyn, N.Y., Aug. 23, 1892.

LOWE, riartha Perry, author, was born in Keene, N.H.. Nov. 21, 1829; daughter of Gen. Justus and Hannah (Wood) Perry ; granddaugh- ter of Dr. Justus Perry and of Stephen Wood of Concord, Mass., and a descendant of Judge Epiiraim Wood of Concord, Mass. She attended the Keene academy and was graduated from Mrs. Elizabeth Sedge wick's school at Lennox, Mass., in 1845. She studied music in Boston, Mass., 1848, and passed the winter of 1849 in the West Indies and the next year in Spain, where her brother, Horatio J. Perry, who married Caroline Coronado, poet laureate of Spain, was secretary of the American legation at Madrid. She was married in 1857 to the Rev. Charles Lowe of Exeter, N.H., pastor of the North church at Salem, Mass. She went with him to Somerville, Mass., in 1859, where he took charge of the First Congregational (Unitarian) society. She was in Europe with her husband, 1871-73, and after his death, June 20, 1874, she resided in Somerville. With Mrs. Maria Teresa Hollander she founded the Woman's Educational Union in Somerville, and served as its president during its existence. She was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and honorary president of the Suffrage league in Somerville. She is the author of: Tfie Olive and the Pine (1859); Love in Spain and other Poems (1867); TJie Story of Chief Joseph (1881); Bessie Oray; Memoir of Charles Loive (1883); Tlie Immortals (Easter Poems). She died in Somerville, Mass., May 6, 1902.

LOWE, Peter Perlee, pioneer lawyer, was born near Lebanon, Ohio, June 11, 1801 ; son of Jacob D. and Martha (Perlee) Lowe. Jacob D. Lowe was born near Somerville, N.J., in 1767, removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1791, and at his house in 1794 the first Masonic lodge in Ohio was organized. In 1800 he located near Lebanon in Warren county. Peter Perlee Lowe studied classics under the Rev. James Kemper, a pioneer preacher, and law under Thomas Corwin ; was admitted to the bar in 1825, and practised in Dayton, Ohio, 1825- 86. In 1832 he was admitted to practise in the U.S. courts of Washington, D.C. He was prose- cuting attorney for Montgomery county, 1832, and took rank as the leader of the criminal bar in Ohio, and was also a noted civil lawyer. He was a Democratic representative in the Ohio legislature, 1838-39: and chairman of the judi- ciary committee. He declined the nomination

for governor in 1850 in favor of his friend Reuben Wood, who was elected. He was a Wliig until 1836, when he left the party on account of the Tyler exposure of the dealings of the U.S. bank with members of congress. He was a delegate to the Democratic state and national conventions, 1836-56, and in 1856 he joined the newly formed Republican party in national issues, but continued for some time to work with the Democrats in state politics. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago, May 16, 1860. He was a promoter of the use of electricity as early as 1845, when he advanced a large sum of money to an inventor in Cincinnati by the name of Starr to visit Europe with his patent and obtain the opinion of scientists. When the in- vention was declared successful, Starr died sud- denly and his patents in Europe and the United States were unknown to Mr. Lowe until the time to complete the same had expired. Mr. Lowe was a trustee of Miami university, 1839-57. He died at Dumbarton Farm, Baltimore county, Md., Aug. 7, 1886.

LOWE, Ralph Phillips, governor of Iowa, was born in Warren county, Ohio, Nov. 27, 1805 ; son of Jacob D. and Martha (Perlee) Lowe ; grand- son of Derick and Rebecca (Emmons) Low ; great-grandson of Cornelius and Judith (Middagh) Low ; and a descendant of the Middaghs, Bergens, Rapaeljes, Hansens, Tricos and Van Nests, early Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, 1607-1664. He was graduated from Miami university, A.B., 1829, A.M., 1832; studied law, and was admit- ted to the bar at Ashville, Ala. He removed to Dayton, Ohio, in 1834, and to Muscatine, Iowa, in 1840. He was appointed prosecuting attorney for the second judicial district of the territory of Iowa in 1841 ; was appointed general of the 2d division of Iowa militia by Governor Chambers in 1842 ; was district judge of the first judicial district of Iowa, 1852-57 ; governor of the state, 1858-60 ; judge of the supreme court, 1860-68 ; U.S. district attorney, 1868-71, and was appointed agent for the state to press claim against the United States for $S00,000 for which purpose he removed to Washington, D.C, in 1874. He died in Washington. D.C, Dec. 22, 1883.

LOWE, Thaddeus S. C, scientist and inven- tor, was born at Jefferson, N.H., Aug. 20, 1832; son of Clovis and Alplia (Green) Lowe, and grandson of Thomas and Lydia Green of Berlin Falls, N.H. In early life he studied chemistry, with particular reference to its relation to gas and metallurgy. In 1855 he was married in New York city to Leontine A. Gachon of Paris, France. In 1856 he began the study of air cur- rents, and as an aid to his investigations he constructed balloons of various sizes. In 1858- 59 he secured instruments from the government,