The New International Encyclopædia/Dow, Neal

DOW, Neal (1804-97). An American temperance reformer. He was born in Portland, Maine, of Quaker parentage, and was educated at the Friends' Academy in New Bedford, Mass. He was twice Mayor of Portland, and in 1858-59 was a member of the State Legislature. In 1861 he was appointed colonel of the Thirteenth Maine Volunteers, which he commanded in General Butler's expedition to New Orleans. Promoted to the rank of brigadier-general in 1862, he commanded the fortifications at the mouth of the Mississippi, and later the Department of Florida. He was wounded and taken prisoner by the Confederates at Port Hudson in May, 1863, and was confined for eight months thereafter in Libby Prison. It was as a temperance reformer and orator, however, that he was best known. He was the author of the famous prohibition law enacted by the Maine Legislature in 1851, and traveled widely in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, speaking on temperance questions and helping in the organization of societies for the furtherance of the reform. In 1880 he was the Prohibition candidate for President of the United States.