Neal S . Dow Neal S . Dow ( March 20 , 1804 – October 2 , 1897 ) , nicknamed the " Napoleon of Temperance " and the " Father of Prohibition " , was mayor of Portland , Maine . He sponsored the " Maine law of 1851 " , which prohibited the manufacture and sale of liquor . Dow was widely criticized for his heavy handed tactics during the Portland Rum Riot of 1855 . Early life and career . Dow was born in Portland , the son of Quaker parents . Following his father Josiah ' s line of work , he became a tanner , and eventually became a prominent and wealthy leather manufacturer . He volunteered as a firefighter to gain exemption from militia duty because of the reputation of militia musters to be drunken bashes . He gained local notice when he persuaded his company to forgo the customary liquor at their annual celebration . In 1827 he was a founding member of the Maine Temperance Society . Before 1837 he was a leader of the splitting off of the Maine Temperance Union over the issue of whether wine should still be allowed — the Union was for total abstinence . Temperance movement . Background . During the 19th century the average American consumed more than three times more alcohol than today . In his memoirs , Dow noted that in Portland ( as elsewhere in the country ) a significant portion of a working man ' s pay was in the form of daily rum rations . " It was the rule " Dow wrote , " to quit work at 11 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon to drink . . . . Many grocer ' s shops kept rum punch prepared in a tub , sometimes on the sidewalk , just as lemonade is to be seen now on the Fourth of July . The Neal S . Dow Museum estimates that there were approximately 300 establishments selling rum , gin , brandy or other alcoholic beverages along the roughly one mile stretch of Portland ' s major business district from lower Congress Street to Munjoy HIll during the first half of the 19th century . Mayor of Portland and " The Maine Law " . The first legislative attempt to impose prohibition in Maine was in 1837 . A bill made it out of committee but was tabled . In 1849 , the bill passed the Maine Legislature but was not signed by Governor John Dana . In April 1851 , Dow was elected mayor of Portland as a Temperance Whig and virtually single - handedly secured passage of prohibition in the state . He worked closely with the legislature to secure passage there . Then , despite the fact that many legislators expected the bill to be vetoed , Dow met with the new Governor , John Hubbard , who signed the bill into law on June 2 . This quickly became known through the country as " the Maine Law , " and propelled Dow to national fame . He was called the " Napoleon of Temperance " , and was the featured speaker in August at a National Temperance Convention . After losing reelection as Portland ' s mayor , Dow traveled the U . S . and Canada campaigning for prohibition laws . He ran again to be mayor in 1854 and lost , but in 1855 won reelection with a 47 vote margin , supported openly by the new Republican party and secretly by the Know Nothing party . Portland Rum Riot . In 1855 , rumors began to circulate that Dow was storing a large supply of alcohol at city hall . Although this was subsequently ruled to be intended for distribution to the city ' s medical community , a judge was compelled to investigate and to issue a search warrant . A suspicious crowd numbering perhaps 2000 assembled outside city hall on June 2 , the anniversary of statewide prohibition , among them his enemies from the city ' s sizable Irish immigrant community , who generally opposed the ban on alcohol . A melee soon broke out and militia were called upon to restore order . When the mob refused to disperse , Dow ordered the militia to fire . One man was killed and seven were wounded . This incident has become known as the Portland Rum Riot . Dow was tried for violation of the prohibition law . The prosecutor was former U . S . Attorney General Nathan Clifford and the defense attorney was a fellow founder of the Maine Temperance Society , William P . Fessenden . Although Dow was acquitted , his image had suffered badly ; he lost his subsequent bid to become Maine Governor . In 1856 the Maine Law was repealed . Civil War . Early role . Dow was an ardent abolitionist and his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad . Part of his support for prohibition was linked to the role of West Indian slavery in the rum trade . When the American Civil War broke out , Dow volunteered for service ( at age 57 ) . He was appointed Colonel of the 13th Maine Infantry on November 23 , 1861 , and his regiment participated in the capture of New Orleans under the command of Union Army Major General Benjamin Butler . He was promoted to brigadier general on April 28 , 1862 , and was assigned to command two Confederate forts captured south of New Orleans , Jackson and St . Philip , followed by command of the District of Florida . Port Hudson . Dow ' s Civil War service is best remembered for his role in the Siege of Port Hudson ( May 21 – July 9 , 1863 ) in Louisiana . Dow commanded the 1st Brigade in the 2nd Division of the XIX Corps . During the Union assault on May 27 he was wounded in the right arm and left thigh and sent to a nearby plantation to convalesce where he was captured by Confederates in early July . He was imprisoned for eight months in Richmond and Mobile . He was released back to the Union Army in exchange for captive Confederate General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee ( son of General Robert E . Lee ) on February 25 , 1864 . His health was degraded by his prison experience and he resigned from the Army in November 1864 . After the war . Postwar politics . Back in Portland , Dow soon became a leader in the temperance movement . He co - founded the National Temperance Society and Publishing House with James Black in 1865 . The Society owned a publishing house that promoted teetotalism . Dow was the Prohibition Party ' s candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1880 , running on a ticket with prohibitionist Henry Adams Thompson , and the ticket came in fourth place , receiving 10 , 305 votes . The election was won by James A . Garfield of the Republican Party and Dow was surpassed by two other unsuccessful candidates : Winfield Scott Hancock of the Democratic Party and James Baird Weaver of the Greenback Party . He wrote " Reminiscences " ( Portland , 1898 ) . Illness and death . He was eventually seen as a comical figure on the national political scene . He did , however , leave a lasting impression on Maine politics by helping engineer the Republican party ' s rise to dominance that lasted for most of a century , from 1855 to 1955 . Dow died in Portland and is buried there in Evergreen Cemetery . Neal Dow Avenue in the Westerleigh section of New York City ' s borough of Staten Island and Neal Dow Elementary School in Chico , California are named after him . Neal S . Dow House . Built in 1829 , Neal S . Dow House is a historic house in Portland , Maine built for noted politician and prohibitionist Neal S . Dow . < / div >