Lorenzo Dow was born in Coventry, CN in 1777, and when he was only 18 years old, he began a career as a traveling preacher. At first he stayed close to home in New England, but soon was preaching across the northern states and into Canada. In 1799 he traveled from Quebec into Ireland, where he preached for more than a year to the reluctant Irish Catholics. Returning to America in 1801, he embarked upon an itinerary that brought him deep into frontier America. He was one of the originators of the camp-meeting style of evangelism in which he would ride into town and announce that there was to be a-preachin' at some local site. People would flock to these assemblies where fire and damnation was delivered with great oratory. This was the time of John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster when public speakers were expected to move women to tears and men to hysteria, and Lorenzo Dow was acknowledged to be among the best at stirring up the passions.
He was, by all accounts, a bizarre figure. He had been an asthmatic child, and poor health dogged him throughout his life. He nearly died of smallpox while in Ireland, and even after he recovered, he remained a gaunt and even emaciated figure. Though sickly, he was invigorated by travel, and preferred to camp out in the open woods when on his travels. With this kind of life-style, staying well-groomed was something of a problem, and he often arrived at his preaching destinations looking something like a wild-man. His hair was shoulder-length and his beard fell down to the middle of his stomach. He was not offended when he began to be called "Crazy Dow," but he called himself "The Cosmopolite." Lorenzo Dow was among the most widely traveled of Americans at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and had a preached in all seventeen of the states then comprising the United States(1). Though the Methodist Episcopal Church seemed to disdain this raggedy preacher, and never gave him formal recognition, he nevertheless provided many converts.
Lorenzo Dow did not spend long in any one location, but he left a lasting impact in every community he visited. The audience was often moved even to the point of "jerking," an uncontrollable physical reaction to the oratory, and many felt that they had been touched by God. Many commemorated the event by naming one of their sons, Lorenzo Dow. There were literally thousands of Lorenzo Dow's scattered across America by 1820, and those Lorenzo's in turn became the namesakes for their own descendants. This naming fervor did not die out until the twentieth century, and it has only been in the last few decades that Lorenzo Dow has become an historical obscurity.
Though Lorenzo Dow apparently never came to Logan County, he traveled through western Virginia at least four times. In 1804 he preached in Wheeling and Wellsburg in the northern panhandle of the state, and in June or July of 1813, he visited White Sulphur Springs and Sweet Springs in Greenbrier and Monroe Counties (Callahan, p. 271). In October 1815 he returned to Wheeling and Wellsburg, and in the early 1830's he visited his brother-in-law, Dr. Dolbeare in Beverly, Randolph County. Monroe County was an important source of immigrants to Logan County, in particular the Chambers, Hinchman, and Perry families, all of which had a Lorenzo Dow descendant. James Chambers and Robert Chambers were Logan County ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Swain, p. 63, 64), and would almost certainly have known about Lorenzo Dow's appearances in Monroe County.
The Lorenzo Dows of Logan County in 1850 were (in order of age):
| Name | Birth Year |
|---|---|
| Lorenzo D. Hill | 1811 |
| Lorenzo D. Perry | 1823 |
| L. D. Chambers | 1828 |
| Lorenzo D. Hinchman | 1834 |
| Lorenzo McNeely | 1840 |
| Lorenzo D. Hatfield | 1843 |
| Lorenzo Stollings | 1845 |
| Lorenzo D. Browning | 1846 |
| Lorenzo D. Steele | 1848 |
| Lorenzo D. McCoy | 1850 |
(1) The seventeen states in which Lorenzo Dow preached were: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts (which included Maine), New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia (which included West Virginia). In addition, he was among the earliest preachers in Mississippi Territory, which at that time included Alabama.
Lorenzo Dow in Logan County, VA in 1850
Sources:
- Callahan, James Morton. History of West Virginia Old and New; The American Historical Society: Chicago and New York, 1923; Vol. 1, pp. 723.
- Dow, Lorenzo. History of Cosmopolite; or the four volumes of Lorenzo Dow's Journal concentrated in one, containing his experience and travels from childhood to near his fiftieth year ... ; John B. Wolff: Wheeling, WV, 1849, pp. 720.
- Sellers, Charles Coleman. Lorenzo Dow, the bearer of the Word; Minton, Balch & Company: 1928, pp. 275.
- Swain, George T. History of Logan County, West Virginia. Kingsport Press, Kingsport, TN 1927, pp. 385.
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Copyright 1999 by David J Webb
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This page was last updated on 31 January 1999