Joseph Godfrey Dow

• General Notes
  • Joseph volunteered in 1846 for the Mexican War, his regiment was stationed in New York City and took six months to travel around the Horn (not sure what R. P. Dow was  referring to here) to San Francisco, California. While stationed at Sonoma County he met Mary Ann Crouch. Mustered out of the army, Joseph became a pioneer temperance lecturer, traveling all over the Pacific slope. For three-quarters of a century the American use of the word temperance seems confined to total abstinence from alcohol. It is rather notable that the pioneers in this line in Maine and in California were both Dows. Lecturing on temperance, however, could not furnish a livelihood, but Joseph was an able worker between times. In 1878 the Northern Pacific Railroad was approaching Spokane, Washington and Joseph took a contract for constructing a division. This was done quite profitably for both parties and Joseph took up land at Larene, Washington, where he died.