The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-10-04

| ohe NlgllanG engine WIN
p'N'' oUo 'hat machine being very poor
,i0 suooeeoed in having the Deluge
pought. soon he was elected captain of
tha' company, and afterwards became
ohlef OF the fire department In this po-
siUloh he was efficient, but gradually
his temperance work engr,ssed bis at
tention and he dropped the vort Of fire.
man.
Before speaking of the incidents of the
long nd1stormy war in the cause of nro-
hibition it is interesting to GLANCE fo,. a
moment at his peaceful domestic lifo
He was married January 80. 1870 ~
Maria Cornelia Durant Maynard of Ros-
ton. She was a grand niece of Corneli,,s
Durant of Scarboro. On the dav of bie
marriage they moved into the house on
Congress street, which he had built !,
which they lived during the days of their
married life, and in which Mr.. Dow has
died. Mrs. Dow died January 13, 1888.
The Civil War for time interfered
with General BOWS temperance work.
and his participation in that struggle
may be 1oticed outside of its chronology
|
regiment in, the Gulf department. under
General Blu, Ter. He was commissioned
| brigadier-ge general and commanded at Fort
St Philip and Pensacola, Florida, and
| in the defences of New Orleans. He was
also at the siege of Port Hudson. He was
| captured in this department. and was in
| rebel prison for nearly year, most of
| the time in Libby prison. He was at that
time man nearly go years of age, and
was looked upon as sage by the young
men who made up the body of the officers
there confined. He was very outspoken
in his contempt of the rebels while in
prison. He also was very active. using
very means to preserve his health. He
would often take long runs about the con-
fined quarters and would admonish the
younger men to do the same in order to
keep up their strength. He was finally
exchanged for General Fitz Hugh Lee,
now our consul general to Cuba.
Of course it is as the Father Of Prohi-
bition that General Dow will be known
to fame. His life was devoted to that one
| idea. He was as active and earnest in
these later years, and to this generation,
MS he was in the second decade of the
century to generation that have long
since been gathered to their graves. His
first temperance speech of any Importance
seems to have been in a meeting of the
old Deluge engine company in 1927, when
he3successfully combatted proposition
to have the usual liquors on an ami
versary occasion. He became secretary
of the Portland Temperance Society, and
| in 1888 was secretary of the Cumb erland
county temperance society. He was also
a prominent member of the Maine State
| Union. Before this in 1929 he had made
a strong temperance speech before the
Maine Charitable Mechanics Associa-
ton land had also advocated the abolition
OF the custom then in vogue among en-
ployers of giving their employees rum, and
the other custom, which now seems so
a. m. and p. m, to notify laborers that
the time for drinking had come. In these
early years, with William W. Thomas
and Others he organized the Young MEMS
Total Abstinence Society of Portland.
In 1889 he appeared before the board of
aldermen to oppose the granting of licen-
ses, and succeeded in having the question
submitted to the people. At first license
was victorious, but in two or three years
ne license people carried the city.
| Before this time Mr.. Dow had become
firmly impressed with the idea that the
fyof in no cfa hx-
| legislative enactment He began to make
| tours over the state, often going in the
dead of winter to advocate the cause.
Mr.. George Shirley, one of his compan-
| ions on these trips, has written an inter-
esting account of them. 1t was before
the days of railroads, and Mr.. Dow
| travelled in his sleigh. To protect us
from the eold'' Mr.. Shirley says, 1--WE
had each of us pair of buffalo boots
with the hair all on, having very long
| leggings. This with two or three buffa-
10 robes constituted our winter equip
ment, and when John Z. Waltor. was
with us we had an extra seat. In this
way we visited almost every town in the
western part of the state; sometimes
suffering bitterly from the severe cold,
but always cheered by the good that was
accomplished. On Thursday, the 18th of
February, 1s45, Messrs. Dow, Walton and
the writer in Mr.. Dow's double sleigh,
and Samuel R. Leavitt and H. G. Barnes,
in, a single sleigh, started for a tour in
Oxford county. We held two meetings
in Standish, one in Standish school
house at Quaker Brook settlement.
was sent to the school house. Great en-
thusiesm prevailed and II signed the
pledge. Missiles were thrown against
the building and as we adjourned the
door was tied on the outside. On Fri
day afternoon and evening we held meet
ings in Rev Noah Emerson's meeting
house at Baldwin. We had large atten-
dance The people came from the sur
rounding towns with four horse teams
and hayracks with seats in them, Z and
with cold water banners floating at the
masthead. At all these meet
ings, if there were any rumsellers in the