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REV. LORENZO DOW
(Alabama)
Rev. Lorenzo Dow was the first
Protestant preacher to preach in any part of the territory that is now
Alabama. He claimed to be a Methodist and affiliated with that
denomination, but they would not be responsible for him in anything he
did. In May, 1803, Rev. Mr. Dow preached to the settlers in the Tombigbee
and Tensaw settlements.
This was the first preaching ever done in Alabama except by Romish
priests. However, when these settlements along the Tombigbee were
developed, and became safe from the Indians and their claims were ceded to
the U.S., heralds of the cross found its people and the voice of the
messengers of peace was heard in the wilderness.
Rev. Dow described in some of his writings the inhabitants as mostly
English, but were like "Sheep without a shepherd," and while it was under
Spanish government it was a refuge for bad men.
Lorenzo Dow was born Oct. 16, 1777, in Coventry, Tolland County,
Connecticut. He was descended from the English ancestors. He was the
subject of early religious impressions. Before he was four years old he
expressed himself as "Mused upon God, Heaven and Hell."
He was united with a society of Methodists being received into it by Rev.
G. Roberts. He claimed Hope Hull as his spiritual advisor. Rev. Mr. Dow
made a long and hard struggle against the conviction that 'it was his duty
to preach, but at last yielded to the conviction that God had called him
to the ministry.
He met with strong opposition from his father as to this move and still
stronger from the members of the church and when he sought to obtain a
license to preach he was discouraged and at first was rejected and sent
away. He continued to press his claim and finally admitted on trial
September 19, 1898. Ill health prompted him to come South. He was lured by
the warm mild climate, and with his wife Peggy, made the long tiresome
hazardous trip. The journey was both dangerous and difficult, but to Dow
perils were a fascination. In his journals which have been sacredly kept,
he tells of these many perils and adventures among the wild tribes he
encountered.
Any feature of the uncivilized and the wilderness appealed to him. On the
stages of the long journey Southward he preferred camping out at night,
especially in the piney woods country. Huge piles of a straw was raked up
which served as the bed and he would be lulled to sleep by the soothing
monotone of the sighing pines. There was also a hope entertained that the
resinous regions possessed a curative power for his malady. A singular
chapter in his life was a great desire and fancy to preach to the Roman
Catholics and hearing Ireland was their greatest stronghold he would
thither, but his pathway was not strewn with roses by any means. He
requested a leave of absence from the Conference in order to make the trip
abroad, but the request was not granted and he took the leave of absence
anyway against their advice and entreaties. He consumed about twenty
months on this trip, preaching the gospel incessantly and attending camp
meetings.
Not withstanding he had made the
European tour against the authority of the Conference, he resumed
preaching on his return and remained on "trial." However, he could not
stand the test and his name was soon dropped from the minutes.
He was not careful to maintain the relationship with the Conference which
he had so eagerly sought. He was sent out on circuit assignments but this
did not correspond with the expansive fields of his dreams. He was
discontented. In a word he did not consider a circuit his right sphere,
and claimed that his connection with the conference was severed. He was
never really ordained to the ministry and was without authority to
administer sacrament or organize societies. In doctrinal principles he was
Methodist, but was without any church influence or allegiance. He was
irregular and uncertain. He was a force, but uncertain, unreliable and
inefficient.
He was restless and he was a dreamer. He was contradictory and never
happier than when engaged in a wordy war. He possessed scant learning, but
was a very close observer of mankind. The very face of Lorenzo Dow
indicated his character. His features were both rough and delicate. It was
rough and effeminate but in that face there was every mark of indomitable
energy.
He parted his hair in the middle and wore it hanging down his neck and
shoulders and his face was radiant with kindness. His wife, Peggy, whom he
married before coming South, in her writings, "Vicissitudes" gives an
account of their first trip coming South and also gives an account of a
trip which she made with him passing through the Bigbee settlements in
Nov., 1811, from Natchez, Mississippi to Milledgdville, Ga., in the
wilderness some forty miles. She says "At night we camped out in lonely
deserts, uninhabited by any being except wild beasts and savages."
"I was much alarmed and uneasy, but my husband was content and slept
sweetly." In giving an account of her first meeting with him she says, "He
is a most singular character, and admits himself that he was known by the
name of 'Crazy Dow' and called hiself 'son of Thunder'.
Despite his ill health he boated that he held off death. He refused to die
and said he must live to fight for the Kingdom. He did not believe in
founding churches but peferred to preach and praise God in the wilds and
in the open. However, a prominent jurist of Alabama, who is closely
connected with Lowndes County, claims to have the historical facts that
Dow preached from the altar one time if no more. The small church known as
"Union" which is nestled in a grove between the small settlements of
Burkeville and Manack, Lowndes County, claims the distinction of having
him preach there in its early history.
The tradition, in part, is that Sam Manac, the half-breed, who founded the
latter place and from whom it was named, met Dow during his wanderings
through the wilds and led him to that altar. Union Church, now obscure,
holds an interesting part in the early history of Lowndes. Dow, the first
man who passed the holy words around and around in Alabama, preached
there. The Graves family, ancestors of Alabama's ex-governor, worshipped
at that altar. Some of which sleep in the nearby churchyard, and it is
built in the road that was the route of the thorough county stage coach
line, 'most a hundred years ago.
Rev. Dow died February 2, 1834, in Georgetown, D.C., was buried near
Washington, but remains were removed and re-buried in Oakhill Cemetery,
near Georgetown.
He had one son, Neal, who was Brigadier in Union Army and author of "Main
Law."
2/20/39
S.J
Lorenzo Dow (White)
From History of Methodism in Alabama
by Rev. Anson West, D.D.
Chapter 2, pages 27-28-29-30-31-32-33-34.
Marie Reese
Lowndes County, Alabama.
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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