Genealogical and Family History
of the
STATE OF MAINE

Compiled under the editorial supervision of George Thomas Little, A. M., Litt. D.

LEWIS HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
New York
1909.

[Please see Index page for full citation.]

[Transcribed by Coralynn Brown]


[Many families included in these genealogical records had their beginnings in Massachusetts.]



DOW

Abner Dow was a first settler in Flintstown, now Baldwin, Maine, about 1800, which was foundedc by the survivors of Captain Flint's company from Concord, Mass. He cleared a farm and was prominent in town affairs.
He married Frances, daughter of Dr. Isaac S. and Charlotte (Hay) Thompson, of Standish, Maine. She was born March 17, 1795, and was the mother of:
1. Franklin.
2. Frances, who married Frederick Todd.
3. Deborah.
4. Alonzo A., married Ophelia Cram; children: i. Clinton, married a Miss Getzel; two children, resides in California; ii. Alfred V., resides in Hiram; married Cassie Gray, one son, Owen Dow, graduate of University of Maine, 1908, now teaching in Porto Rico; iii. Franklin, died young; iv. Joseph, a practicing physician in Vermont.
5. Leander A., see forward.
6. Deborah (Mrs. Sylvanus Yates), who died in 1908, the last survivor; she was the mother of four children: i. Frank E., married a Miss Noble, one child, Howard Yates; ii. William, resides in Windham, Maine, engineer on Maine Central railroad; iii. Charles, married a Miss Shaw, of Standish; iv. Franny, married Clayton Spring, of Brownfield, Maine; three children.
Mrs. Dow was a member of the Congregational church; she died Sept. 30, 1873.

(II) Leander Abner, youngest son of Abner and Frances (Thompson) Dow, was born in Baldwin in 1832, and died May, 1895. He was a farmer for a number of years, and then moved to Gorham, Maine, where he conducted a meat market.
He married Mary Ella Haven, of Hiram, Maine, daughter of Capt. Haven, who was the father of three other children, namely: Abbie, m. James Foss and had children: Clara, deceased; Eva, deceased; Herbert, marrie Nettie Clark, of Hiram, Maine; Noah, married Nellie Clark, of Hiram, Maine; Noah married Nellie Lord, of Cornish, Maine. Annie, the only survivor, married Richard Haley; now living in Sebago, Maine; no children.
Octavus, the only son, served in the civil war, was captured at Port Royal and died in Libby prison.

Children of Mr. and Mrs. Dow:
1. Phoebe, died in youth.
2. Hattie, married William A. Foss, of Raleigh, Mass.
3. Nellie, married Fred C. Googins, manager of the Stockholm Lumber Company, of Stockholm, Maine.
4. Fred T., see forward.
5. Laura, married Lyman Perley, of Rowley, Mass.

(III) Fred T., the only son of Leander A. and Mary Ella (Haven) Dow, was born in Baldwin, July 23, 1867. He was instructed in the rudimentary branches of the local schools of Gorham, and graduated in the engineering department of the University of Maine in 1890. After graduation, he went with the Orono Pulp and Paper Company to install their plant, subsequently going into a machine shop in Old Town, Maine. In 1891 he went to the West Indies to conduct a school for colored people after the plan of the Hampton Institute in Virginia, founded by philanthropic Englishmen of Birmingham. In 1892 he went with the General Electric Company of Lynn as a draughtsman. From here he went to the state of Washington as instructor in the Agricultural College and School of Science at Pullman. In 1896 he re-engaged with the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York, and was soon promoted to be foreman of the switchboard department, and managed the standardization of switchboards in the draughting department. While here he aided in designing about three thousand new panels and switchboards. He worked on the plan for an electro hydraulic and steam plant, the largest ever built, and numerous steam and electric plants.
On account of poor health, he came to Bangor, Maine, in 1901, as a consulting and designing engineeer. He designed and installed for F. W. Ayer, of Bangor, a log carrier three thousand feet long, between Chamberlain and Eagle lakes. This carrier has a capacity of a million feet of logs daily. In 1904 he made a survey of the Moosehead lake region for the Kennebec Water Power Company. He prepared and originated plans for the better utilization of the water power of the Penobscot river, between Bangor and Old Town.
He is a Republican.
He married Marion Antoinette, daughter of Capt. George W. and Sarah (Treat) Reed, of North Bucksport, Maine, Sept. 4, 1903.
Children:
Ruth Haven, William Reed, James Treat and Isabella Marion.
Captain George W. Reed was killed by the British when they came up the Penobscot in 1812. The Reeds came from Maryland, and were a seafaring family.


DOW

The following sketch deals with Henry Dow, of Watertown, Mass., 1637, the earliest settler of the name in the New World, and a line of his descendants. The Dows from the earliest times have borne an enviable reputation for energy, probity, industry and patriotism, and have contributed much to the prosperity of the nation. Fifty-five enlistments in Mass. regiments during the revoluton are credited to Dows. On account of the Dows of this line being Quakers in revolutionary times, none fo them were then soldiers.

(I) John Dow, the earliest known progenitor of the family of Dow of which this article treats, born in Tylner, Norfolk county, England, in 1520, died in July, 1561, between the seventh of the month, the date of his will, and the twenty-third, when it was presented for probate. From that document it is inferred that he left three children:
Thomas, John and Edith.
and two brothers, William and Thomas.

(II) Thomas, eldest son of John Dow, of Tylner, was afterward of Runham in the same county. The name of his wife was Margaret.
Children:
Henry.
Christopher.
2 daughters, one of whom married Stephen Farrar, and the other a man named March Christopher, and had nine children.

(III) Henry, eldest child of Thomas and Margaret Dow, lived at Runham, where he died in December, 1612, or Jan., 1613. He married Elizabeth ____, by whom he had:
Thomas, Henry, Edward, Mary, Frances, and William, all of whom must have been young when the father died.

(IV) Henry (2), second child of Henry (1) and Elizabeth Dow, was born in Runham, about 1608. He married Feb. 11, 1631, Joan, widow of Roger Nudd, of Ormsby, in the same county. Six years later he applied for permission to emigrate to America, was examined April 11, 1637, and was granted license to depart to these shores, the document being entitled, "The examination of Henry Dowe, of Ormsby, in Noff, husbandman, aged 29 years, and Joane, his wife, aed 30 years, with four children, and one servant, Ann Maning, aged 17 years, are desirous to pass into New England, to inhabitt."
They settled in Watertown, Mass., where Henry Dow was admitted freeman May 2, 1638. He removed to Hampton, New Hampshire, in the latter part of 1643 or early in 1644, having previously bought of John Saunders a dwelling house, and several tracts of land for a farm. This homestead remained in the possession of his lineal descendants till after the death of Olive Dow, of the sixth generation, dau, of John, in 1854, when it was sold and passed into other hands.
Henry Dow was a man who possessed the qualities of leadership, as is shown by his official record. He was selectman in 1651; deputy from Hampton to the general court of Mass. in 1655-56; was appointed with two others in 1658 to examine and record all land grants and highways. This last work was interrupted by his death April 21, 1659. Joane, or Jane, Dow died and was buried in Watertown, June 20, 1640.
Henry married (second) in 1641, Margaret Cole, of Dedham, Mass., who was dismissed thence to Watertown church in 1643. She survived him and married (second) Oct. 23, 1661, Richard Kimball, of Ipswich.
Children of Henry Dow by 1st wife:
Thomas, Henry, an infant and Joseph.
Children by 2d wife:
Daniel, Mary, Hannah, Thomas and Jeremiah.

(V) Sergeant Joseph, third son of Henry (2) and Joane or Jane Dow, was the first of the family born in this country, the place of his birth being Watertown, and the date March 20, 1639. He settled in that part of Hampton now known as Seabrook. He seems to have been active in the controversies growing out of land claims under conflicting charters, having been appointed in behalf of the town to represent the inhabitants of Hampton under that subject before the royal council. He was also otherwise concerned in the public affairs of the little community in which he lived. Although like his older brother, "Captain" Henry Dow, Joseph was at one time connected with the military service of the colony. He later associated himself with the Friends or Quakers. He was then about thirty-four years old, and was among the earlier converts of the mission to this country of George Fox, the founder of the sect. With that society this line of the family retained its connection through several generations, or until it was severed by the withdrawal of General Neal Dow.
Joseph was one of those who suffered from the persecutions to which the Quakers of his day were subjeced, but his persistency in demanding his rights not only led to his receiving some recompense for his injuries, but to the discomfiture of the governor of the province and the better treatment thereafter of the Quakers of the vicinity.
In 1701 he was one of the trustees to whom the land was conveyed in behalf of "all those Christian people, called Quakers, living in Hampton, to seat a meeting-house thereon." Two years later, April 7, 1703, he died at the age of sixty-four years.
He married, Dec. 17, 1662, Mary, daughter of William and Mary (Moulton) Sanborne, of Hampton.
Children:
Joseph, John, Mary, James, Hannah, Henry, Jeremiah, Josiah, Thomas, Charity, Samuel and Aaron.

(VI) Josiah, eighth child and sixth son of Sergeant Joseph and Mary (Sanborne) Dow, born in Hampton (Seabrook), July 2, 1679, died April 18, 1718, when only thirty-nine years old. He lived in that part of Seabrook called "New Boston."
Sept. 22, 1710, were published the intentions of marriage of James and Elizabeth Purrington, of Salisbory, who were married Nov. 7, 1710. She was a descendant of the third generation from Robert Purington, who was a landholder in Portsmouth in 1640 and 1657.
Children:
Winthrop, Abraham (did young), Abraham, Elizabeth and Anna.

(VII) Abraham, third son of Josiah and Mary (Purington) Dow, was born May 2, 1715, and was left fatherless before he was three years old. He, like his progenitors, was a farmer, but became quite prominent among the Friends as a preacher, and lived to be sixty-nine years old, dying in 1784. His will was proved Feb. 18, 1784.
He married Phebe, born June 19, 1715, daughter of John and Abial (Marston) Green, of Hampton.

(VIII) Jedediah, second son of Abraham and Phebe (Green) Dow, born Oct. 30, 1740 or 1751, died in Weare, N. H., May 10, 1826, aged eighty-five. About 1772 he moved to Weare and settled on lot 35, range 5. There he buit a log house in what was then a wilderness, where he cleared a farm. To the family vocation of farming, Jedediah added that of blacksmithing. He was in the vigor of manhood when the revolutionary war broke out. His life, with that of his father, who at the inception of that struggle was sixty years of age, covered more than a century of New England history, many incidents of which he related to his grandson, Neal Dow, and which the latter relates in his book, "Reminiscences of Neal Dow." One day Jedediah Dow was walking across a field when his dog seized his coat and began pulling him back in so strange and unaccountable a way that he yielded his will to that of his dog and returned to his home. In making that retreat he turned and saw an Indian with a gun, move from behind a rock by which he would have passed but for the strange conduct of his dog. He always afrerward believed that the animal saved his life. One evening, when the shades of night were first closing around him, he was returning from the woods, walking with his head won, his ax under one arm, and his hands in the pockets of his coat. Suddenly his hat was snatched from his head, and he saw confronting him in the narrow path a huge bear, standing on his hind feet, displaying a wicked row of glittering teeth. Retreat was impossible, had he wished it, and there was nothing for it but to fight it out with no quarter to either combatant. Mr. Dow was a powerful man, and an experienced woodman, skilled in the use of an ax, but his quick and powerful blows delivered by that formidable weapon were for a time parried by the bear. At last the edge of the axe disabled one of the brute's paws, and instnatly another blow on the head brought him down. Afterwards the end was easy.
The log cabin of Mr. Dow was succeeded by a large and excellent farm house where he spent the evening of his days in the family of his daughter Mary. This house was not far from the Quaker church where he worshipped. Near the site of the old church repose the remains of Mr. Dow and his wife, their graves marked only, as was customary with the early Friends, by simple mounds of unhewn stones. Mr. Dow was an industrious, prudent, God-fearing man, and a good citizen. He possessed the respect and confidence of his townsmen, who elected him to the office of selectman.
The name of his first wife is not known; she was killed by lightning a few days after her marriage. He married (seond) Dorcas Neal, born June 1, 1740, died May 18, 1810.
Children:
Mary, Josiah, Ruth, Dorcas, Abraham, Jedediah and Jonathan.

(IX) Josiah (2), eldest son and second child of Jedediah and Dorcas (Neal) Dow, was born in Seabrook, Sept. 27, 1766, and was taken by his parents to Weare when he was about six years old. "There, surrounded by such influences as may be inferred from what has been written," writes hi son, "he lived until he was twenty-four. He was about nine years old at the outbreak of the revolution, and to his last day remembered well he excitement attending many of the events of that war. A company of militia on its way to Boston, and which afterwards participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, camped near his father's house. Some of his relatives were among them, and they took from him the bullets he had been casting, together with the bullet-mold and what uncast lead he had. He never admitted to his son that he was intentionally furnishing ammunition for 'carnal warfare,' but Quaker and son of a Quaker, though he was, as a boy he regretted that he had not lost by the militia a sufficient number of bullets to serve his patriotic neighbors through the battle."
In his earlier days game of many kinds abounded in the forests, among such being the wild turkey, to hunt which was his chief recreation. The son of a farmer on a backwoods farm, his early life was rude and laborious, but he had the requisite courage and determination to improve his condition, and the opportunity offering, being fond of reading, he qualified himself to discharge all the duties of a good citizen with advantage to society and credit to himself. In summer he was an industrious worker on the farm of his father; in winter he taught a school, in which, however, were imparted only those branches that country boys and girls of that day were expected to acquire. In 1790, soon after attaining his majority, becoming satisfied that it would be wise for him to seek another field of employment, he left Weare and moved to Falmouth, Maine, a town then adjoining Portland, and of which the latter had been a part until set off in 1786. Here he lived for about five years in a house still standing on the banks of the Presumpscot river, about five miles from Portland, just beyond the covered bridge on the Blackstrap road. He brought with him to his new home but little more than good health, a strong constitution, and those industrious habits and simple, frugal tastes which were the natural ourgrowth of parental and other influences which surrounded him in the home of his boyhood. But with what he had he engaged in carrying on in a small way, with a brother-in-law who had preceded him to Falmouth, the tanning business, his leisure time in winter being employed in teaching school. After living in Falmouth six years he married and moved to Portland, where he and his wife began housekeeping. He continued the tanning business and succeeded so well at it that four years after settling in Portland he built a more comfortable house than he had formerly occupied, and there he and his wifce passed the remainder of their lives. He retained his interest in the tanning business as long as he lived. In it he accumulated a competence sufficient for all his wants and tastes. His judgment in matters of business was sound, and often sought by his townsmen.
He was for many years, from its incorporation in 1824, a director of the Merchants' Bank of Portland, resigning the position when the infirmities of age made it impracticable for him to attend to its duties. He was also in the directorate of other business corporations. Necessarily somwhat isolated during the latter part of his life, because of his age, he nevertheless retained his interest in current events until within a few weeks of his death. Put in possession of the facts bearing on any given business problem, he drew his conclusions from them clearly and with sound judgment almost to the last. He held some offices, accepted from a sense of duty as burdens of which he should bear his part rather than from any desire for place or notoriety, to which he was always averse. He always took interest in political matters, voted at every presidential election, and, probably, at all others down to the first election of Lincoln. In his party affiliation he was in turn a Federalist, National Republican, Whig, Free Soiler and Republican. He was an earnest antislavery man and was actively interested in the "underground railroad," by means of which fugitive slaves, not a few of whom reached Portland in vessels from southern ports and otherwise, were taken to points where they were not likely to be captured. His home was always an asylum for such of them as needed food and temporary shelter while waiting to be escorted farther toward the north star of freedom.
He was a well-read man, his favorite works being the Bible, Shakespeare, and Pope's Essay on Man. With these he was thoroughly familiar and always ready with apt quotations from either. He was clear, concise and strong in conversation, and quick at repartee. He was a remarkably vigorous, active and athletic man; and with his physical strength possessed also a strong will and great self-control.
He died June 1, 1861, at the age of ninety-four years and nine months. In all his life neither his persnal character nor his business integrity was ever questioned by so much as a breath of suspicion. He has always possessed sound health, having scarecely a sick day in his whole life, but after he was eighty years of age he fell on the ice and broke his hip, and was confined for several months to his bed, and never so far recovered as to be able to walk without lameness, though long after this he was about, attending to ordinary affairs. No more loving father, no more upright and honorable man, or truer Christian and patriot ever lived.
A Friend, descended from a long line of Friends, his life always conformed to their rules, which treat this world as a vestibule to a future life. He never for a moment wavered in his fidelity to truth, and the consistency of his life and conversation was entirely without stain.
He married, Feb. 3, 1796, Dorcas Allen, born in Falmouth, Aug. 28, 1773, died in Portland, July 8, 1851, aged seventy-eight years. She was the sixth of the seven children of Isaac and Abigail (Hall) Allen, of Falmouth. Hatevil Hall, the bride's grandfather, then ninety-six years of age, was one of the signers of the marriage certificate. She was of slight frame, and apparently not strong, but was blessed with good health until her last sickness. A few years before her death she met with an accident, resulting in a broken hip and other injruies, and she was therefore af great sufferer, but she bore all with heroic fortitude and christian patience. She was for her time well educated, fond of reading, possessed of strong common sense and good judgment. She was a trusting christian woman, self-reliant and determined in all that she believed to be right, impressing her character upon those with whom she came in contact. For more than a half century she proved to her husband a faithful wife and helpmeet, a wise counsellor and trusted friend.
Children:
Emma, Neal (see below), and Harriet.
Emma, born in 1800, married Neal D. Shaw, of Baring, Maine, and died in 1851.
Harriet, b. 1806, was an invalid from early life, and died in 1869.

(X) Neal, second child and only son of Josiah and Dorcas (Allen) Dow, was born in Portland, March 20, 1804. As soon as he was old enough he was sent to a "dame's" school, as a school taught by a woman was then called, and after attending three terms at schools of this class, he was promoted to a "master's" school. Subsequently he was taught in Master Taylor's private school, from which he was transferred to Portland Academy, where among his fellow students were Henry W. Longfellow and his brothr Stephen, Edward Preble, son of the famous commodore, and William Brown, who became prominent in the south. At thirteen years of age, after being some time at the academy, he was sent to the Friends' Academy in New Bedford, Mass., where he attended some time, and then returned to Portland and again entered the academy, and after a year there, terminated his school life in 1820, when he was sixteen years of age. He much desired to go to college, for which he had fitted, but his parents so strongly opposed this idea on account of the bad influences he would be subjected to, and because they thought that a college education was a device of the adversary, that he had to abandon the project. Their objection, based probably on the latter reason, also prevented the gratification of his desire to study law. And so after a month or so of vacation, he went into his father's tannery to make himself geneally useful in the business. At the same time, however, he determined to supplement his school acquirements by a regular course of reading. This he was able to do and thus gratify his great fondness for books. He read the books in his father's library, borrowed from friends and spent his spare pocket money for books. Those he thus purchased were the foundation of a library which in his age compared favorably in number, variety, and quality of contents with any of the private collections in Maine. The habit of reading thus begun continued with him through life, and made him one of the best informed men in New England.
Mr. Dow's earliest business venture upon his own account was in 1821, when at seventeen years of age, accompanied by his cousin, John Hodgdon, then twenty-one years old, he went to Oldtown over the established stage routes and then up the Penobscot and Mattawamkeag rivers by bateau into the wilds of Aroostook county, where they surveyed land that had been bought by members of the family in which Mr. Dow had a one-third interest purchased by his father for him. This was the first of numerous land transactions in which he was interested, many of then of considerable magnitude and profit. These lands, in the survey of which he spent some months, included, it seems, the present towns of Hodgdon and Linneus, in Aroostook county. After completing this work he traveled to Buffalo, then in the great "West," and to Montreal, New York city, and Philadelphia, making what at that time was considered a "grand tour," at the completion of which he returned to Portland, and was taken into the tanning business as a partner by his father. This co-partnership lasted until the death of the senior Dow in 1861. The style of the firm was Josiah Dow & Son, and in 1861, when Fred N. Dow, the grandson of the original proprietor of the business, was admitted as a partner, the firm named remained the same. In 1874, owing to the illness of Free N. Dow, upon whom the general care of the business had developed for years, the business was closed, which by the use of integrity, industry, eceonomy, thrift and good judgment had been a paying one. At the time the business closed the firm name was the oldest in the city, the industry which it represented having been carried on by some member of the family for more than seventy-five years, during which period it had successfully weathered every financial crisis, always paying dollar for dollar. Besides the business of tanning Neal Dow had time, means and credit for outside matters of more or less local importance, and some of them proved profitable. When twenty-nine years of age he was made a bank director, and filled that position by successive elections for over forty years. For years he was trustee of a savings bank, and for a while president of the Portland Gaslight Company. He served also in the dirctorate of a railroad, manufacuring and other corporations. In the early days of the Maine Central Railroad Company, of which he was a director, he was actively interested in its promotion, pledging to the success of the enterprise a large portion of the means and credit at his command. At its inception he was solicited to accept its supreintendency, but did not feel inclined to tie himself so closely to business as such a position would demand, and declined the offer pressed upon him by his associate directors. He gradually relinquished interest in business affairs, and retired from active connection with corporate management as his time and thought became more and more engaged in the subject with which his name was so closely connected and to which he gave so much of time and strength. Indeed, after 1851, his attention was largely diverted from business, as he was absent from home much of the time subsequent to that date, including more than three years at different times in Europe, and during the war for the Union. Hence his connection with general business was never after 1857 much more than nominal.
After attaining his majority, Mr. Dow began to take that interest in town affairs which he retained till his death. Three years earlier, at the age of eighteen, he joined the volunteer fire department of Portland, and retained connection wit it more than twenty-five years. At that time, 1822, the department was a purely voluntary and largely a social and mutual protection organization. That old fire department did not last long after he became connected with it. Shortly after he became of age he prepared a bill which was enacted by the legislature, then in session in Portland, under which it was remodeled. The number of men connected with the department when at its best was about seven hundred. April 3, 1827, Mr. Dow was elected clerk at the first meeting of the "Deluge company," then having among its members many of the best men of the town. He served as clerk of the company four years, when he was chosen first director, or captain, acting in that capacity until April, 1837. In that year he was made chief of the department. He took great pride in making it thoroughly efficient, and was so far successful that in after years he wrote that he thought there was none in the country in proportion to numbers and extent and quality of apparatus superior to it. Its members were picked men, rigidly disciplined and finely drilled. His connection with the department, and especially his serving as chief engineer, had something to do with his acquiring a measure of local influence and a personal following of young, reliable men, then and afterwards made to serve the promotion of temperance, in which subject he was already taking an interest. It was then the custom to celebrate anniversaries and other events with dinners, more or less formal. Liquors were always used at these celebrations. Mr. Dow's first speech upon temperance was made while he was a clerk in the Deluge company, in opposition to a motion to instruct the committee in charge of the proposed celebration to provide liquors. The company adopted his views, "so far as I am aware," he writes, "it was the first affair of the kind in Portland from which liquors were excluded, and naturally attraced attention and excited a great deal of comment, favorable and otherwise - at first largely otherwise - among the firemen." Through his influence, and that of others, it became the rule to exclude liquors from the entertainments of the various companies, many firemen becoming total abstainers. Mr. Dow was "fire chief" for a number of years, and in every way the peer of any man who ever filled that office in Portland. His temperance views antagonized the liquor element, which made strenuous efforts to oust him from office on various charges, but he always came out the victor in these contests and was sustained by the elder men when charges were brought before them.
In the campaign of 1828 Mr. Dow made his first political speech, as in that election he cast his first presidential vote. Speech and vote were both for Adams. His subsequent course through life in politics shows how strongly his desire to support the right obtained, and how little he could be controlled by party policies which he did not favor. In the campaign of 1832, though heartily opposed to Jackson, he could not favor Clay, who was a pro-slavery man; he therefore voted for the Antimasonic candidate. In 1836 he continued his general relations with the Whig party and was a supporter of Harrison. In 1837 he supported the Whig candidate, Edward Kent, who was elected governor of Maine. In the memorable campaign of 1840 he entered the contest with great earnestness and enthusiasm as a supporter of General Harrison for president and Edward Kent for governor. Both were elected, and Mr. Dow was appointed colonel on the staff of the latter, though he had never trained in the militia. In 1844, Whig as he was on all economic and administrative questions, he would not give his vote to Clay. Dueling, slavery, and the annexation of Texas, were the disturbing points, and he acted with the Abolitionists, with whose horror of slavery he was in full sympathy. In 1848 he favored Van Buren as the Free-Soil condidate for president. In 1852 he did what he could in Maine for the Whig candidate, General Scott, the friend of prohibiton being under peculiar obligations to temperance Whigs who had supported at the polls the Democratic candidate for governor, because he had approved the Maine law. In 1856 the Republican party, of which Neal Dow was a charter member, had been formed, and he favored its candidate for president, Fremont. It was during this campaign that he first met, as a Republican, his friend, Hannibal Hamlin, who had recently abandoned the Democratic party. They addressed an immense meeting from the same platform. Their presence there had more than ordinary significance, and the great ovation accorded to each by the thousands that thronged the square was not altogether personal to either. Mr. Dow was in full sympathy with the Republican party in 1860, and participated with voice and pen in the campaign resulting in the election of Lincoln. In 1864 he favored Lincoln as a matter of course, making particularly prominent the fact that if the north re-elected Lincoln it would greatly discourage the south. From 1864 up to and including the election of President Hayes in 1876, he retained his connection with the Republican party and supported its tickets, state and national, rendering from time to time such assistance as he could upon the platform and through the public press, his services by no means being confined to the state of Maine.
In 1880 he was nominee for president of the Prohibition party. Before the assembling of its national convention at Cleveland, Ohio, it had been intimated to him that there was a disposition to make him the nominee of that organization for president. Where it was proper for him to do so, he expressed a hope that such action would not be taken. There were several reasons for his wish that some other choice might be made, one of which was that in his entire political life his name had been used in connection with his candidacy for official position, whether with or without expectation of attaining to such, only as it was supposed by friends of temperance that the cause in which they and he were alike interested might thus be served. In this instance he believed that any other name would answer as well as his around which to rally the few who had come to regard probition of the liquor traffic a national issue of paramount importance, and he was inclined to the opinion that he could better serve the general cause if unembarrassed by even a national candidacy for office. He was, however, persuaded that others should be permitted to finally pass upon that question. His name was presented to the convention by Hon. James Black, of Pennysylvania, and he was unanimously nominated. Mr. Dow did not feel at liberty to decline the nomination, and accordingly accepted. Until 1880 Mr. Dow had uniformly acted with the Republican party, supporting its nominations and advocating its principles from platform and thorought the press in his own and other states. He had, however, been dissatisfied with the action of the party in Maine at times with reference to prohibition, and had become so much so that, with other temperance men who, up to that time, had been stalwart Republicans, he refused to support his nominee for governor in 1880. By 1884 he had reached an age long past that at which most men interest themselves in public affairs. His views of what was wise and expedient, under all the circumstances, led him to devote himself wholly to securing as large a majority as possible for the prohibitory constituional amendment which was then pending before the people of Maine. He sincerely desired the election of his long time friend, James G. Blaine, who was then the Republican candidate for president, but was unable, had he been disposed, to lend active assistance in the canvass. That was the last presidential election in which he took more than a passing interest. By 1888 his old time relations with the Republican party had been completely severed. He voted that year, as in 1892, the national ticket of the Prohibition party.
Neal Dow was brought up in a family where he learned to do right because it is right. He early saw the evils of intemperance, and joined the ranks of those who sought to promote moderate drinking; but it soon became apparent to him that total abstinence was the only cure for the conditions that then cursed the country. Almost immediately after his majority he joined the Maine Charitable Mechanics' Association, and did all he could in that body in connection with others to remove the evils of intemperance. March 31, 1833, he assisted in the organization of "The Portland Young Men's Temperance Society." During the three years of the life of this society over thirteen hundred signed the pledge, among whom was the poet Henry W. Longfellow. Mr. Dow later became secretary of this society. In 1834, as a delegate from this society, he took part in the first state gathering of temperance ever held in Maine. "By this time," he writes, "almost unconsciously, I had become so fully identified with the reform as to be in the way of knowing most of what was being done if not actually taking part in it. To the best of my recollection, however, my purpose at that time did not extend beyond my desire to assist in correcting the evils apparent in the city of Portland." About 1835 he began to feel that he had a special duty to perform in this line, that his field of labor ought to include the state, and the idea of prohibition was developed. Feb. 2, 1837, Mr. Dow was one of those who formed at Augusta "The Maine Temperance Union," "upon the principle of total absinence from all that untoxicates." The organization of the Union may fairly be regarded as the first in the series of progressive movements resulting in the enactmen, in 1851, of what has since been known as "The Maine Law." For fourteen years it maintained its existence, the recognized head of all public temperance effort in the state. Its last annual meeting was held in 1850, at which time Mr. Dow was elected its president. In the year of its existence Mr. Dow and those associated with him carried on a campaign of education and waged a ceaseless war against the liquor traffic. Its results are known to the present generation, but for an understanding of the early conditions, the methods of that warfare and the work necessary to accomplish the results that finally accrued, they can best know by reading that great record of the temperance movement in Maine, entitled, "The Reminiscences of Neal Dow."
In the spring of 1841 the Washingtonian reform, which had been started in Baltimore in 1840, reached Portland. In May some working men, friendly to temperance, invited many men of their acquaintance to meet at a specified time in a room occupied by Mr. Dow as chief engineer of the fire department. The meeting was a success, and in a short time from Portland Washingtonianism spread throughout the state and did much good. In 1841, following the inaguration of the Washingtonian Movement in Portland, a "Young Men's Total Abstinence Society" was organized. Like the Washingtonian movement, this society had its inception in the fire department, and it included many of the members of that body. Mr. Dow did not join this society, but took an interest in inducing young men to become connected with it. In 1849 the legislature passed a bill which would enable the authorities to "ferret out and suppress the grog shops," as Mr. Dow expressed it. Govenor Dana vetoed this bill. Subsequently Mr. Dow wrote a series of articles, analyzing and explaining its features. His nomination for the mayoralty of Portland followed in 1851, on the theory of the temperance people that his nomination and election, because of his thorough identification with the policy of prohibition, would be of great advantage to the movement. The campaing was spirited, and at the election which followed Mr. Dow lacked elven votes of an election. There was no choice of a candidate. Another election was held, and Mr. Dow was made mayor by a larger vote than had ever before been given a candidate for mayor of Portland, and by a majority which had been exceeded but twice in its history. His election was naturally regarded as a distinct triumph of the temperance element of the city. He was inaugurated April 24, 1851. After redrawing the prohibitory bill which he had advocated before the last legislature, where it was passed by the two houses and received the governor's signature early in June, and thus the "Maine Liquor Law" began its existence. This legislation was far in advance of anything of the kind previously enacted in this country, and its beneficient effects are today apparent in the prosperous conditon of Maine people. This was a proud day for Mayor Dow, and his successful efforts for prohibitive legislation were hailed with delight by temperance people the world over. In closing his explanation of the features of his bill to the joint special committee of the house and senate, Mayor Dow had closed with the pledge; "If you will enact this bill, the sun shall not rise on Portland, January, 1852, and find there a single grog-shop." And he ketp his word; long before the time specified every dealer, wholesale or retail, had gone out of business, and no liquor selling was carried on except in a petty, surrepititious way. Over three hundred retail liquor shops and several wholesale establishments were simultaneously put out of business. Within a comparatively few months after the enactment of the Maine Law a considerable portion of the state, including most of the larger towns, was practically free from the liquor traffic. The change for the better, substantially throughout Maine, was marvelous, apparent not only in a decrease of drunkenness and of the long and varied list of disturbance, which radiaate from the saloom, but in evidences of industry, trift and material prosperity rewarding well directed labor. Mr. Dow was renominated for the mayoralty, his opponent claiming that the prohibitory law had been too strictly enforced. The Democratic vote was abnormally large, and Mr. Dow was defeated. It was claimed by man, among them the Hon. W. W. Thomas, that hundreds of illegal votes were cast in opposition to Mr. Dow and caused his defeat.
Neal Dow was known now throughout the land and in foreign countries as the apostle of temperance. Immediately after his deat he accepted invitations to speak, and filled appointments for three months in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan, where he received ovations from the temperance people. Early in January, 1853, he again left Maine and made a speaking tour, during which he addressed a committee of the legislature of New York in Representatives' Hall at Albany, which was crowded. He also spoke at other points in New York, in New Jersey, and in Maryland and Pennsylvania, addressing the legislature of the last two states. Later he spoke in Rhode Island, Ohio and Michgan. His reception in Michigan was peculiarly enthusiastic. He also made a tour of Canada which included Montreal and Quebec. In Sept., 1853, he was a delegate to the World's Temperance Convention in the city of New York, a large and influential gathering, including delegates not only from many of the states of the Union and British Provinces, but from Great Britain as well. He was made president of that body. Subsequently he went to Pennsylvania, where he spent a month, constantly speaking, often twice a day, and later yet spoke for some time in Massachusetts. In January, 1854 Mr. Dow again went forth to discuss temperance and did not return to Portland till the day of election of mayor. In the meantime he had been nominated for the mayoralty, and in the spirited contest that followed his opponent won by one hundred and three votes. In 1855 Mr. Dow was nominated as the candidate of the Republicans of Portland for mayor, and his election followed. Out of a total of 3,742 votesm, his majority was forty-six. His administration of the prohibition law was no less strict than formerly. The opposition started an aggitation which ended in a riot, bloodshed, and the death of one or more persons. Out of this grew opposition to the temperance cause in the state, and the Maine Law was repealed, then re-enacted two years later, and stands today as a monument to Mr. Dow and his co-laborers who never remitted their efforts to again place it on the statute books and elect men to insure its support.
Mayor Dow passed nearly four years in Great Britain. He was there from April to November in 1857; from May, 1866, to November, 1867, and again from April, 1873 to May, 1875, a few weeks only out of each of these periods being deducted for continental sight-seeing. Each of those visits was made at the invitation of the United Kingdom Alliance. That great and influential society was formed in 1853 in consequence of the adoption of the Maine Law, to aid in obtaining similar legislation in Great Britain. Mr. Dow was informed that letters written by him, in 1852 and 1853, to prominent and philanthropic Englishmen in their own country were useful in promoting its organization. The object of his visits was to explain to the English people the principles on which the policy of prohibition was founded and show its results. Its labors were very successful, and he was everywhere received as the world's temperance leader. Want of space forbids further mention in this article of his work in Britain. [trans. note: thank goodness!]
The services of Neal Dow to his countymen have been very justly said to be seond only to those of Washington and Lincoln. He early became imbued with a desire to promote the right. The restriction of the liquor traffic seemed to him to be necessary. He began to agitate for it, and in a few years he found himself giving almost his entire attention to it. His field widened, and his combative nature being now fully aroused, he made prohibition the mission of his life, and achieved the splended success which is attested in the mighty temperance movement of today, (1908), the immediate origin of which can be traced back to the works of Neal Dow and his temperance workers in Portland. He was an earnest, active and radical anti-slavery man, enjoyed the friendship and acquaintance of the leaders in that movement, and gave the abolition cause his best support. It was no more than was to be expected that he, with his well known moral and physical courage, would take an active part in the war for the Union. He wrote extensively for the press of Great Britain, explaining the causes and object of the war, and his communications were extensively circulated throughout that country, being published in many of the leading journals of the United Kingdom, and had much to do in arousing that Union sentiment among the middle-classes of the country that prevented the British government from recognizing the independence of the south.
In 1861 he was commissioned colonel and raised the Thirteenth Maine Regiment and a battery of artillery for the service of the United States. He took command of the regiment, which was one of the best drilled that Maine sent to the front, and composed of as fine a lot of young men as there was in the state. There was no drunkenness in that regiment, swearing was prohibited, and every evening at dress paradem so long as Colonel Dow remained with it, there were religious exercises, singing and prayers before the parade was dismissed. He took his regiment to Ship Island, where he remained until May 19, 1862, when he received his commission as brigadier-general. He was in command at Ship Island for a time, and was then transferred to Fort St, Philip, and from thence was sent to Pensacola, where he was in command for some time. In the latter part of January, 1863, he was assigned to the command of the deferences of New Orleans at Carrollton, and remained there in the discharge of the ordinary duties pertaining to such a position until the 21st of next May. On that date, in pursuance of orders, he moved his brigade to Port Hudson, in the assault upon which a few days later he led his troops. While thus engaged he was struck by a spent ball upon the arm, which was rendered useless by the blow, causing him to lose control of his horse. Dismounting, he proceded on foot until he was disabled by a rifle ball, which passed through his left thigh, two-thirds above the knee. This completely disabled him, and he was helped to the rear. In this assault, in the expediency of which General Dow had no faith, the troops under his command behaved like veterans, but the attack was a failure, as it was foredoomed to be. While recovering from his wounds at a house about three-quarters of a mile from his brigade encampment, General Dow was captured by a small squad of daring Confederates, June 30, 1863. He was imprisoned in Richmond and in Mobile a little over eight months, and was exchanged for General Fitzhugh Lee, March 14, 1864. While being taken through the south he learned much of value to the Union cause which he communicated to the National government by means of letters written to friends in invisible ink.
On his return to Portland General Dow was escorted to his home by a body of soldiers and a great throng of citizens. On the next evening he was tendered a formal welcome at the City Hall, and responded in a speech which occupied about five columns in the papers. The crowd at the hall was of unprecedented size in Portland. The general's speech was published far and wide, and he was overwhelmed with invitations to speak in all parts of the north. These he was obliged to decline on account of the run-down condition of his health from the effects of exposure and hardhips. After the close of the war, during which General Dow's activity for temperance and prohibition were suspended, he resumed his labor in their behalf as soon as the attention of the people could be drawn from wholesale slaughter to their own moral welfare. Two of his visits to Great Britain were made after the war, and occupied substantially three years and a half. "With the exception of the time thus spent abroad, General Dow gave himself unreservedly to his chosen life work in the country until he reached the age of ninety. In the prosecution of his labors he traveled east as far as Newfoundland, and west to San Francisco, and his presence was a familiar one upon platforms in many cities between those extremes, and through his constant and voluminous correspondence for the public press, his views upon his favorite topic and other subjects of general interest were made known to the English-speaking world. To the work of this description he added that necessary to keep himself thoroughly informed upon all important current events in every part of the globe. He knew no idle moments, and until the last year of his life, when he was compelled to spare his eyes in the evening, he was constantly busy with book or pen, when not otherwise employed, while his varied daily employments were such as would have exhausted a man of average strength, his junior by a score of years.
The ninetieth anniversay of General Dow's birth, March 20, 1894, at the suggestion of Miss Frances E. Willard, and through the co-operation with her of the temperance organizations generally, was made the occasion for congratulations upon his distinguished services, his long life and his remarkable preserved health and strength. His home was thronged throughout the day with his fellow townsmen, and with those from distant towns and other states, who called to pay their respects. It is questionable if any other citizen in private life, who had never held high official position, has been the recipient upon an occasion of so many congratulatory letters, telegrams, and cable messages as then poured in upon General Dow from every quarter of the globe. In the evening a great meeting presided over by the mayor was held in the City Hall, which was crowded in every part. Congratulatory speeches were made by distinguished persons and an admirer of General Dow presented an oil painting of him to the state.
At this time, General Dow, though wonderfully preserved in mind and body, recognized that his working days were nearly over. He continued to appear occasionally in public, making several speeches, in one or two instances traveling many miles for the purpose, and speaking at some length. His last address was made about a year before his ninety-second birthday. Great physical weakness finally forced him into complete retirement at his home, where he kept informed on current events until the last week of his life.
When nearly seventy-five years of age General Dow began the preparation of an account of the growth of the cause of temperance and prohibition with which he had been identified. He worked on this as he was able in the brief and infrequent intervals of liesure which he found, until the closing months of the last year of his life. From the amount of matter he thus prepared the book entitled "The Reminiscences of Neal Dow, Recollections of Eighty Years," was compiled and published in 1898. This volume gives a vivid account of the life and experiences of its author and of the men and measures which finally established the prohibitory law.
General Dow died Oct. 2m 1897, in the ninety-fourth year of his age. His funeral was the occasion of another great gathering of those who wished to manifest their respect for the great prohibition leader. With imposing ceremonies his body was placed to rest in Evergreen cemetery. A morhing paper on the day following his funeral said: "Many distinguished men and women were present to do honor to General Dow's memory, but the most noticeable feature of the occasion was the very large attendance of people in all walks of life who came to show heartfelt respect to the memory of the man who was dear to them because of the cause he championed."
Neal Dow married, Jan. 20, 1830, Maria Cornelia Durant, born in Boston June 18, 1808, daughter of John and Mary (Durant) Maynard. She died in Portland, Jan. 13, 1883. She became a member of the Old South Congregational Church in Boston at sixteen years of age, was later a member of the High Street Church in Portland, and finally of State Street Church, of which she was a member at the time o her death. She was a deviut Christain and well known for her works of charity. Suffering and sickness among the poor within the range of her observation were never left unnoticed or unrelieved by her when her assistance would avail. She was a true wife and noble woman, a faithful temperance worker, and enlisted the aid of many other women in the cause of temperance.
Children:
Edward, Henry, Josiah and Rusell Congdon died when about two years of age;
Frank Allen died in 1865, when eighteen years of age.
Louisa Dwight, the eldest child, born March 23, 1831, married the late Hon. Jacob Benton, of Lancaster, New Hampshire, where she resided till her deah Dec. 7, 1895.
The third child and 2d daughter, Emma Maynard, married William E. Gould, of Portland, and resides in Boston.
The only surviving son, Frederick N., is the subject of the next paragraph.
The youngest daughter, Cornelia Maria, died unmarried in Portland, Oct. 12, 1905.

(XI) Frederick Neal, son of Neal and Maria Cornelia Durant (Maynard) Dow was educated in the Portland Academy, the Portland high school, and the Friends' school in Providence, Rhode Island. He inherited from his father and grandfather a love for books and study, and supplemented his school course with systmatic and extensive reading. At sixteen years of age he left school and took a place in the tannery established by his grandfather. In this occupation he served in every capacity from apprentice to managing partner. In 1861, on the death of his grandfather, Josiah Dow, he became his father's partner, and soon afterward manager of the business, retaining that place until it was closed in 1874, on account of his failing health. In 1861, at the outbreak of the civil war, he volunteered in the first company of militia which offered its services in the state of Maine, but, as already stated in this sketch, his father's entrance into the army necessitated the son's remaining at home.
Mr. Dow's interest in politics, brought up as he was in the family of one of the most active of political characters, began at an early age; and in debates in the Lyceum and in contributions to the press, his opinions found their way to the public ear and eye. His participation in actual political campaigning began when he attained his majority, and has ever since continued. In 1867 he was chosen a member of the city government of Portland, and was re-elected in 1868. In the same year, he was elected a member of the superintending school committee, and served thereupon until 1873, when he declined re-election on account of the amount of his private business. In 1871 he was appointed aide-de-camp of Governor Perham. The followin year he was elected a member of the executive council of Maine. He was re-elected in 1873-74, being chairman of that body in the latter year. During his service as a member of the council he was particularly interested in the Reform School, and to his efforts, as much as to any other agency, is to be attributed the substitution of the reformatory for the cell and penal system, which until that time had been features of that insitution. In 1874 the Republicans of Cumberland county unanimously nominated him for the state senate, but factional differences in the party prevented his election. In 1876 he was appointed by Governor Dingley as one of the commissioners from Maine to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In the same year he was made a member of the Republican state committee. To this place he was annually re-elected up to and including the year 1892. In 1880 he was a delegate at large to the Republican National convention at Chicago. On the retirement of James G. Blaine from the chairmanship of the Republican state commitee, Mr. Dow was chosen chairman of its executive committee, and on the retirement of Senator Frye he became chairman of the general committee. On the death of Hon. Lot M. Morrill, collector of the port of Portland, Mr. Dow was warmly recommended by the people of Portland and the state generally, without regard to party affiliations, to fill the vacancy, and receiving the appointment from President Arthur, Feb. 9, 1883, he entered upon the discharge of the duties of the office and served until 1885, when he was removed by President Cleveland on the ground of "offensive partisanship."
Mr. Dow was one of the principal promoters of the measures in 1886, which resulted in the general organization of permanent political clubs through the country. He became the first president of the Portland Club, which was the first of its kind in the state and the second in the country. He was also the first president of the Maine League of Republican Clubs. In the autumn of 1886 he was unanimously nominated for the legislature by the Republicans of Portland, and was elected by a large majority than any of his associates on the ticket. He served during the session as a member of the judiciary, and chairman of the library committee. Two years later he was re-elected, was unanimously nominated speaker by his fellow Republicans, and elected. In 1889, when Benjamin Harrison became president, the friends of Mr. Dow began to agitate the question of his restoration to the collectorship from which he had been removed, but Mr. Dow refused to indorse any movement of that kind until the expiration of the term for which his successor had been appointed. In Oct., 1890, he received his nomination from President Harrison, and was at once confirmed by the senate without the usual formality of a reference to the committee. This position he held until 1895.
In 1874 Mr. Dow read law in the office of Generals James D. and Frank Fessenden, and was later admitted to the bar, but the amount of other business he had on his hands left him no time to attend to a law practice, and he gave it up. About 1886, with James G. Blaine and others, Mr. Dow became interested in the Evening Express< making it an earnest Republican organ and widely extending its circulation and influence. He is now president of the Evening Express Publishing Company, a director of the Casco Loan and Building Association, president of the Portland Loan and Building Association, president of the Portland Gas Light Company, president of the Casco National Bank, president of the Union Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and was formerly a director of the Portland & Ogdensbury [trans note: Ogdensburg?] Railroad Company and of the Commercial Union Telegraph Company.
Mr. Dow's many enterprises compel him to be one of Portland's busiest of business men, and few men are more constantly employed or make longer days than he. From his youth Mr. Dow has showed great energy of character, and as soon as he had opportunity it became apparent that he had executive ability of a high order. These qualifications, associated with that somewhat rare quality called common sense, made him successful. In politics his ability was early recognized, and he became one of the foremost leaders of the Republican party in Maine. In his conduct of political campaigns in the state, especially in that of 1882, his aptitude for organization and mangement of details commanded the attention of all the public men of the state. As speaker of the house he enjoyed the confidence and respect of his associates who, without regard to party, testified of his ability and impartiality as a presiding officer.
Natually retiring in dispositon, his prominence and official positions have resulted rather from force of circumstances than from self seeking. He has always refused to be a candidate for office until his friends could convince him that there were sound reasons for the ineffectiveness of any personal wish of himself. His loyalty to his friends would never permit any fancy of his own to interfere with their aspirations. These considerations have led him to refuse influential tenders of support for mayoralty, congressional and gubernatorial nominations, repeatedly urged upon him. He is a man of strong convictions and progressive ideas on all public questions, and one whose integrity of character in all the relations of his life have won the confidence of this community. But with all his political activity he has never allowed political differences to disturb personal relations, and it has often been said that he has at once more earnest political opponents and friends than any other man in Portland. He has a pleasing personality, is dignified in manner, but always affable and courteous. His tenacious memory is well stored with historical facts, and has made him a man of wide and accurate information in regard to public men and affairs. He has a lively sense of humor and a ready wit which render him an agreeable conversationalist and companion. As a public speaker he commands a copious fund of fircible and polished language, but depends more upon a logical statement of facts for effect than upon oratorical flights.
In religious faith he is an Orthodox Congregationalist of broad and liberal views. At Dunstan, eight miles from Portland, Mr. Dow has a commodious and hardsomely furnished summer residence, where he obtains recreation. Nearby is his large farm, conducted in a systematic business-like way.
Colonel Dow married, Oct. 22, 1864, Julia D., born July 18, 1839, daughter of William and Abigil (Brown) Hammond, of Portland.
Children:
William H., see below.
Marion Durant, born Aug. 24, 1870, who married William Colby Eaton, of Portland.

(XII) William Hammond, only son of Colonel Frederick N. and Julia Dana (Hammond) Dow, was born in Portland, Dec. 25, 1866, and was educated in the Portland public schools and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating from the latter school. The two following years he spent in the employ of William Engel & Company, lumber manufacturers, at Bangor. In 1893 he became circulation manager of the Evening Express Publishing Company, of Portland, and filled that position until he became business manager, a place he still holds. He has a livey interest in politics and the municipal affairs of the city, and has served three years as a Republican in the common council, 1895-98, one year of which time he was president of the council. He was a member of the board of aldermen two years, being chairman of the board one year. He has taken a leading party in affairs of common interest to the newspaper publishers of the state, and is secretary of the Maine Newspaper Publishers' Association, 1906-07.
He is a member of the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association, the Portland Society of Natural History, the Portland Society of Art, the Young Men's Christian Association, Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Portland Club, the Portland Economic Club, and the Portland Country Club.
Mr. Dow married, June 16, 1897, Kate Turner, born in Portland Jan. 19, 1871, daughter of Leander A. and Mary Frances (Turner) Wade, of Portland.
Children:
Katherine Maynard, b. March 1, 1900.
Neal, b. May 11, 1907, both natives of Portland.


DOW

(For prededing generations see John Dow I).

(IV) Thomas Dow, eldest son of Henry and Elizabeth Dow, was an early settler of Newbury, Mass., and one of the original grantees, a farmer, and removed thence to Haverhill, where he died May 31, 1654, at the age of about thirty-nine years. His will was made two days before his death and was proved April 8, 1656. He left a widow, Phebe, and children:
John, Thomas, Stephen, Mary and Martha.
The widow was married Nov. 20, 1661, in Haverhill, to John Eaton, of Haverhill.

(V) Stephen, third son of Thomas and Phebe Dow, was born March 29, 1642, in Newbury, and subscribed to the freeman's oath in Haverhill in 1688. He died in that town July 3, 1717. His will was made on the first day of that month and was proved on the seventeenth.
He married (first) Sept. 16, 1663, in Haverhill, Anne Storie, of Salem, and she died Feb., 1715. He married (second) Feb. 7, 1716, Joanna Hutchins. She survived him more than seventeen years, and died Oct. 29, 1734.
Children, all by 1st wife:
Ruhamah, Samuel, Hannah, Stephen, Martha and John.

(VI) Stephen (2), second son and fourth child of Stephen (1) and Anne (Storie) Dow, was born Sept. 10, 1670, in Haverhill, died June, 1743, at Haverhill. He married Dec. 14, 1697, Mary Hutchins.
Children:
Timothy, Nathaniel, April, Elizabeth, Richard, Joanna, David, Jonathan and Stephen.

(VII) Richard, son of Stephen (2) and Mary (Hutchins) Dow, was born Feb. 15, 1706, in Haverhill, died 1786. He was there married, Feb. 28, 1728, to Phoebe Heath. She was born June 25, 1705, in Haverhill, daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Bradley) Heath. Richard Dow lived in that part of Haverhill which was cut off in 1741 from Massachusetts, and became a part of New Hampshire. The records of Salem, N. H., show the births of the following
children:
Reuben, Oliver, Richard and Asa.

(VIII) Oliver, second son of Richard and Phoebe (Heath) Dow, was born in Haverhill, Mass., July 28, 1736, died at Waterville, Maine, Dec. 18, 1824. He resided in Salem, N. H., from whence he removed to Hopkinton in 1773; in 1790 he returned to Salem, and in 1820 removed to Waterville.
Enlisting in 1756, he served during the colonial wars at Crown Point and elsewhere, also during the revolution, and was lieutenant in Colonel Thomas Stickney's regiment in 1776; was at Ticonderoga in 1777, in Rhode Island the same year, and in 1781 was in Lieut.-Colonel Raymond's regiment of New Hampshire troops.
He held offices in Salem and Hopkinton, and joined the Congregational church in 1758. In 1766 he signed the remonstrance against the Anabaptists.
He married Hannah Pattee, born Dec. 7, 1737, died March 17, 1820.
Children:
Phoebe, Hannah, Oliver, Ellice, Levi, Simeon, Phenie and Lavinia.

(IX) Levi, son of Oliver (2) and Hannah (Pattee) Dow, was born March 25, 1771, died March 27, 1849. He married June 19, 1801, Catherine Whipple, of Boston, who died June 8, 1818. Married (second) July 18, 1819, Elizabeth McC. Horton, of Milton, Mass., who was born April 7, 1791, died Oct. 11, 1864. Mr. Dow resided in Hopkinton, N. H. and Boston, Mass., where he owned a coal and wood wharf on South street, moving to Waterville, Maine, in August, 1820. In religious beief he was a Universalist.
Children by 1st wife:
Levi, Charles, William H., Thomas A., Elizabeth, Catherine, Charlotte, Charlotte Augusta.
Children by 2d wife:
Mary, George Sylvanus Cobb, John Randolph, Albert Marshall and Marshall Adams.

(X) George Sylvanus Cobb, son of Levi and Elizabeth McC. (Horton) Dow, was born Oct. 24, 1821, at Waterville, Maine, and died June 23, 1888, at Delaware Water Gap. He resided in Maine, Boston, Mass., Davenport, Iowa, New York City, removing to Bangor, Maine in 1879. He was engaged in the dry goods business, firm of Dow & Lyon, Bangor, until 1852; then read law in Poughkeepsie Law School, New York; practiced in Davenport, Iowa, the firm being Corbin & Dow, which was also engaged in bnking and real estate business. Together with the late Austin Corbin, of New York, and the late Dr. Burtis, of Iowa, founded the First National Bank of Davenport, Iowa, the first bank opened under the national bankign act of 1863. He was later associated with Austin Cobrin in New York from 1874 to 1879, during which the Manhattan Beach hotel properties, the Long Island railroad, were developed by the Corbin Banking Company, which also first established the western real estate-mortgage-loan business.
Mr. Dow was a Unitarian, and a Jacksonian Democrat.
He married Dec. 5, 1843, at Bangor, Maine, Elizabeth Charlotte, born Aug. 29, 1825, daughter of Samuel and Charlotte (Heald) Sylvester.
Children:
1. Ada Horton, born March 6, 1846, at Bangor, Maine, where she resides. Educated at private schools, including Dr. Gannett's at Boston.
2. Herbert George, born Aug. 22, 1854, at Davenport, Iowa, died at Brooklyn, N. Y. March 13, 1878. He was valedictorian at Swarthmore College, in 1875, from which institution he received the degree of A.B., and was also a graduate of Harvard University in 1877, prominent in athletics, president of the Pi Eta Club, and class-day marshal at Harvard.
3. Richard Sylvester, see below.

(XI) Richard Sylvester, youngest son of George Sylvanus Cobb and Elizabeth (Sylvester) Dow, was born May 2, 1864, in Davenport, Iowa. Educated in private schools and at Swarthmore Preparatory; he spent two years at Harvard Law School, received the degree of LL.B. from Boston Univ. Law School in 1894, and is a member of the Suffolk (Mass.) bar.
He votes with the Republican party, and attends the Unitarian church.
He married Oct. 12, 1886, at Bangor, Maine, Abbie Jenness, daughter of James Freeland Rawson, a lawyer who received the degree of A.M. from Union College in 1884.
Children:
1. & 2. George Herbert and Rawson (twins), born Aug. 7, 1887, died Aug. 21, 1887.
3. Marion, born July 17, 1888, at Bangor, Maine.
4. Dorothy, born Dec. 22, 1890, at Brookline, Mass.
5. Elsie, born Jan. 26, 1898, at Boston, Mass.

Richard SILVESTER, who was the first American ancestor of Mrs. Elizabeth Charlotte Dow, came from England to Weymouth and Scituate, Mass., and died in Marshfield, Mass. Sept., 1663. He left Weymouth because of religious views, which were considered too broad. The name of his wife was Emeline, and secondly, Naomi Torrey, of Weymouth.
John, son of Richard and Emmeline SILVESTER, was born March 14m 1634, and died between Sept. 12 and 20, 1706, at Marblehead, Mass. His wife's name was Sarah.
Samuel, son of John and Sarah SILVESTER, was born in 1676 and died in 1834, being baptized Oct, 3 1676. [trans. note: no way! He has to have died in 1734, not 1834; nobody lives that long!]
His wife was Lucretia, dau. of Walter and Elizabeth Joyce, whom he married Oct. 19, 1700, and died at Marshfield, Mass.
Joshua, son of Samuel and Lucretia (Joyce) SILVESTER, was born April 5, 1708, in Marshfield, bap. June 27, 1708, and the name of his wife was Mary. The first child born at Pownalborough, now Wiscasset, Maine, 1739.
Samuel (2), son of Joshua and Mary SILVESTER, was born Dec. 20, 1743, at Pownalborough, died in 1791; married April 24, 1766, Mary Horner. He was a cordwainer, and resided at Wiscasset, Maine.
William, son of Samuel (2) and Mary (Horner) SILVESTER, was born Oct. 5, 1766, and died Sept. 27, 1826. He married, in 1788, Mary, dau. of Ephraim Brown, of Stowe, Mass., who was born in 1771 and died in 1847. Ephraim BROWN was a great-great-grandson, on his mother's side, of John Fairbanks, of Dedham, Mass., whose house, the oldest in the country, still stands there. William resided at Norridewock, Maine, where he held offices, being for many years a justice of the peace, was representative to the general court of Mass. in 1813-14-15; was selectman and assessor of Norridgwock in 1791-1802-13. He laid out the first road to Canada through Maine; built the first bridge over the Kennebec, Oct. 31, 1810; joined the church in 1797; his wife in 1801.
Samuel (3) SYLVESTER, son of William and Mary (Brown) Silverster, was born Dec. 7, 1792, and died Feb. 20, 1869. He married, Dec. 20, 1817, Charlotte, dau. of Timothy Heald, of Winslow, Maine, who was b. June 18, 1797, d. June 29, 1875.
He was stationed at Fort Edgecomb, near Wiscasset, in the war of 1812, and held the rank of major. He was a merchant and a Congregationalist. Children of Samuel and Charlotte (Heald) Sylvester: 1. & 2. Albert Gallatin and Alfred Golburn (twins), b. April 20, 1820. 3. Benjamin Franklin, b. Dec. 24, 1821. 4. Eliza Charlotte (Mrs. George S.C. Dow), b. Aug. 29, 1825. 5. Harriet Stodder, b. May 8, 1831, married John W. Tufts. 6. Anna Maria, b. June 13, 1833, married N.H. Dillingham. 7. William Gustavus, b. Aug. 25, 1835. 8. Carolyn Sawtelle, b. Oct. 13, 1839, married P.R. Sabin, of Camden, Maine. 9. Frances Louise, b. Aug. 23, 1843, widow of Parker Erskine; resides in Wiscasset, Maine.
Mrs. Dow, Mrs. Sabin and Mrs. Erskine are the only living members of the family of nine. (1908).

The RAWSON genealogy shows among its members Edward Rawson, last secretary of the old Bay State, and first secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and other men of prominence in Mass., including Dr. Freeland, serving in the American army during the revolution. Among the English ancestors was the sister of Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Grindall, who was the tutor of Queen Elizabeth.
James Freeland RAWSON married, at Bangor, March 9, 1858, Sarah Deborah, b. Feb. 9, 1831, dau. of Thomas JEnness, of New Hampshire, and Mary (True) Jenness, also of N. H. They had two children: Mary Jenness Rawson, b. Oct. 6, 1859, at Bangor, died at Boston Nov. 26, 1903; and Abbie Jenness Rawson. Thomas Jenness and Mary True were married Feb. 4, 1830, and moved to Bangor before 1831, where he engaged in the hardware business, and resided there till his death, Aug. 5, 1864. His widow died March 16, 11892, and they had two children: Mrs. James Freeland Rawson, and John S. Jenness, b. Oct. 21, 1836, at Bangor, who, after graduating at the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge in 1858, with the degree of S.B., entered the business with his father, the firm name being Thomas Jenness & Son. He continued to reside in Bangor, unmarried, until his death Nov. 15, 1896.

Blind Counter


INDEX