yoscph Emerson Dow.
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��same exception, was town-clerk from 1817 to 1825. In addition to this be was generall}'^ moderator of the town- meetings, and a school officer. He made little account of his profession of the law during the remainder of his days. In fact, he was employed many years by the Iron Company as a woodworker.
From Franconia he removed to Thornton, where he remained till 1847. At the latter place he held the town offices of moderator and clerk, and most of the time was post- master. He was the principal jus- tice of the peace in that region, and was much occupied in the duties that pertain to that office, at a time when it was one of some importance and distinction.
Returning to Franconia from Thorn- ton, he passed his remaining years at the Ironworks village.
Mr. Chapman, in his book of bi- ography of Dartmouth college grad- uates, says Mr. Dow practised his profession for a time at Strafford, Vermont ; but his residence there must have been very brief and proba- bly uneventful, as his name does not appear upon the town records.
In the circumstances of birth, early social surroundings, and first mar- riage, Mr. Dow seems to have been fortunate. His parents were Gen. Moses Dow and Phebe (Emerson) Dow of Haverhill, where he was born in 1777.
Gen. Dow was one of the eminent men of the bar of Grafton county. He held the office of register of pro- bate thirty-four years ; was state sen- 'ator and president of the senate, councillor, judge of the court of com- mon pleas, major-general of the state
��militia, and at several terms of court, before and after the war of the Rev- olution, he was acting attorney-gen- eral in Grafton county.
In the Revolutionary period he was an earnest patriot, and subsequently acquired a very extensive [)ractice in his profession.
His example will become more and more conspicuous by one notable act, if for nothing else in his eventful life, should the rivalries for high political office increase and intensify in the future as the present promises. He declined to accept air election to con- gress, which he had received from the general assembly of New Hamp- shire. His letter* of declination con- tains evidence both of the high char- acter of the man and of his refined literary attainments.
It is to be hoped that his life and character may receive appropriate at- tention at the hands of some member of the bar association. The records of such men are the most valuable of the possessions of our profession.
The son, Josei)h E. Dow, received his education at the schools at Hav- erhill, and at Dartmouth college, where he was graduated in 1799. He was thus a contemporary in college with Webster, but not a class-mate, as has been sometimes asserted.
He studied the profession of law with his father, at Haverhill, and was admitted to the bar,! at that place, at the September term, 1802, and in Caledonia county, Vermont, at Janu-
- Hammoud, N. H. Town Papers, vol. 12, p. 182.
fHou. Jack Mattocks gave it on the authority of Hon. Peyton R. Freeman, that Jlr. Dow was asked but one question at his examination for admission, and to that he gave a true answer. "What is the best title a person can have in real estate?" Mr. Dow replied that he did not know.
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