Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/241

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DOW
DOWELL
219

N. H., went to Boston in 1829, was foreman in his brother's printing-office for several years, and in 1840 established a job oI!ice. In 1850 he began the publication of the " Waverly Magazine," in which he published all the contributions of fiction and poetry that were offered by school-girls and other young writers. He began with no capital, printed without discrimination the articles of ama- teur authors, and was successful from the begin- ning, finding many readers among the friends of the numerous contributors. At one time he en- gaged an editor of taste and experience, who re- jected many of the communications ; but the cir- culation at once fell off, and the paper was restored to its original basis. He gave much thought and care to the typography and appearance of his maga- zine, and it obtained a wide circulation among young people of scanty education and immature taste in the factory towns of New England and throughout the western states. Before the civil war his income from the paper had reached $60,- 000 a year. The circulation for many years was 50,000 copies, but it afterward sank to 20,000. He built a fine hotel in Charlestown.


DOW, Neal, temperance reformer, b. in Port- land, Me., 20 March, 1804; d. there, 2 Oct., 1897. He attended the Fi'iends' academy in New Bed- ford, Mass., and was trained in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits. He was chief engineer of the Portland fire department in 18^9, and in 1851 and again in 1854 was elected mayor of the city. He became the champion of the project for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, which was first advocated by James Appleton in his report to the Maine legislature in 1837, and in various speeches while a member of that body. (See Appleton, James.) Through Mr. Dow's efforts, while he was mayor, the Maine liquor law, prohibiting under severe penalties the sale of intoxicating beverages, was passed in 1851. After drafting the bill, which he called " A t^ll for the suppression of drinking- houses and tippling-shops," he submitted it to the principal friends of temperance in the city, but they all object- ed to its radical character, as cer- tain to insure its defeat. It pro- vided for the search of places where it was suspected that liquors intended for sale were kept ; for the seizure, condem- nation, and con- fiscation of such licjuors, if found ; and for the pun- ishment of the

persons keeping

and imprisonment. Notwithstanding the discouragement of friends, he went to the legislature, then in ses- sion at Augusta, had a public hearing in the hall of representatives, which was densely packed by the legislators and citizens of the town, and at the close of the hearing the bill was unani- mously accepted by the committee. It was printed that night, was laid on the desks of the members the next morning, and on that day, the last of the session, was passed through all its stages, and was enacted without any change whatever. Mr. Dow was a member of the Maine legislature in 1858-'9. On 31 Dec, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the 13th Maine volunteers, and with his regiment he joined Gen. Butler's expedition to New Orleans. He was commissioned a brigadier-general of volun- teers, 28 Api'il, 1802, and placed in command of the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi, and after- ward of the district of Florida. He was wounded twice-in the attack on Port Hudson, 27 May, 1863, and taken prisoner while lying in a house near. After imprisonment for over eight months in Libby prison and at Mobile, he was exchanged. He resigned on 30 Nov., 1864. In 1857, and again in 1866 and 1874, Mr. Dow went to England at the invitation of the United Kingdom temperance alliance, and addressed crowded meetings in all the large cities. He has spent many years in endeavor- ing, by public speeches in the United States and Canada, aCs well as in Great Britain, and by fre- quent contributions to magazines and newspapers, to win the popular sanction for prohibitory legisla- tion. In 1880 he was the candidate for the nation- al prohibition party for president of the United States, and received 10,305 votes. In 1884 an amendment to the constitution of Maine was adopted by a popular vote of nearly three to one, in which it was declared that the manufacture, sale, and keeping for sale of intoxicating bever- ages was for ever forbidden, and commanding the legislature to enact suitable laws for the enforce- ment of the prohibition.


DOWD, Patrick, Canadian clergyman, b. in the (Jounty Loutli, Ireland, in 1813 ; d. in Mont- real, 19 Dec, 1891. He was educated at Paris, where he went to pursue his studies in the Irish college there. In 1837 he was ordained priest by Archbishop Quelen, of Paris, and soon afterward returned to Ireland, where he resided until 1847, being for a part of that time president of the dio- cesan seminary of Armagh. In 1848 he removed to Canada, and officiated as assistant to Father Connolly, the pastor of St. Patrick's church at Montreal, until 1856, when he was appointed pas- tor of the congregation. Soon after Father Dowd's arrival in Montreal he saw the necessity for an asylum for Irish orphans in that city, and in 1849 he established one. He was also mainly instru- mental in securing the erection of the present St. Patrick's orphan asylum in Montreal, which was opened in November, 1851, and established in 1856 the night-refuge for the destitute and St. Bridget's home for the old and infirm, and in 1866-7 he se- cured the erection of a commodious building on Lagauchetiere street as a refuge for the poor. In 1877 he organized the great Irish Roman Catholic pilgrimage to Lourdes and Rome. He had been offered, on several occasions, the highest dignities of the church, and refused the offer of the bishop- ric of Toronto, or Kingston. He was more thor- oughlv identified with the Irish Catholics of Mont- real tlian any other clergyman.


DOWELL, Greensville, physician, b. in Albemarle county, Va., 1 Sept., 1822 ; d. in Galveston, Texas, in 1881. He was educated at the University of Louisville and at Jefferson medical college, and was graduated M. D. from the latter. After practising in various states he finally established himself in Galveston, Texas, and was for fifteen years preceding his death professor of surgery in the Texas medical college. He was a surgeon in the Confederate army, from 1863 to 1875 was editor and publisher of the "Galveston Medical Journal," originated the Dowell system for the treatment of" hernia, and was the author of several books on that subject and yellow fever.