Connecticut-born itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow traveled on foot throughout the United States, delivering sermons, for more than three decades — from the late 1790s until his death in 1834.
Here’s how Dow was described in one obituary:
He was one of the most remarkable men of this age for his zeal and labours in the cause of religion. (…) His eccentric dress, and style of preaching, attracted great attention; while his shrewdness, and quick discernment of character, gave him no inconsiderable influence over the multitudes that attended on his ministry.
The evangelist’s popularity was so great that it inspired thousands of early 19th-century American families to name their newborns “Lorenzo Dow.” Some examples…
- Lorenzo Dow Gower, born in Tennessee in 1803.
- Lorenzo Dow Brooks, born in Vermont in 1804.
- Lorenzo Dow Young, born in New York in 1807.
- He was the younger brother of Brigham Young.
- Lorenzo Dow Booe, born in Kentucky in 1808.
- Lorenzo Dow Rowell, born in Maine in 1811.
- Lorenzo Dow Bentley, born in Connecticut in 1813.
- Andrew Lorenzo Dow Gove, born in New Hampshire in 1816.
- Lorenzo Dow Wait, born in New York in 1818.
- Lorenzo Dow Driggs, born in Pennsylvania in 1822.
- Lorenzo Dow Doty, born in Ohio in 1824.
- Lorenzo Dow Hancock, born in Ohio in 1827.
- Lorenzo Dow Patterson, born in Alabama in 1829.
- Lorenzo Dow Monroe, born in Massachusetts in 1831.
- Lorenzo Dow Colyer, born in New York in 1833.
Among Dow’s more famous namesakes were U.S. Congressman Lorenzo Dow Danford (b. 1829), sea captain and businessman Lorenzo Dow Baker (b. 1840), and Kansas governor Lorenzo Dow Lewelling (b. 1846).
Plus, there’s Lorenzo Dow Thompson — the only person to ever defeat Abraham Lincoln in a wrestling match. (The bout was held in 1832, while both men were serving in the Illinois Militia during the brief Black Hawk War.)
Do you have anyone in your family tree named Lorenzo Dow?
Sources:
- Lorenzo Dow – Wikipedia
- “Deaths.” Daily National Intelligencer [Washington D.C.] 5 Feb. 1834: 3.
- Gormley, Myra Vanderpool. “Limbs with History.” Ancestry Magazine Jul./Aug. 2007: 32.
- Riley, Ruth E. “The Honest Wrestler.” Sports Illustrated 30 Jul. 1956.
- FamilySearch.org
Image: Clipping from Lorenzo Dow: The Bearer of the Word (1928) by Charles Coleman Sellers