Early Life and Career
Dow was born in Portland, the son of Quaker parents. Following his father Josiah's line of work, he became a tanner, and eventually became a prominent and wealthy leather manufacturer. He volunteered as a firefighter to gain exemption from militia duty because of the reputation of militia musters to be drunken bashes. He gained local notice when he persuaded his company to forgo the customary liquor at their annual celebration. In 1827 he was a founding member of the Maine Temperance Society. Before 1837 he was a leader of the splitting off of the Maine Temperance Union over the issue of whether wine should still be allowed—the Union was for total abstinence.
Read more about this topic: Neal S. Dow
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or career:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“The early Christian rules of life were not made to last, because the early Christians did not believe that the world itself was going to last.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“It is my duty, gentlemen, to inform you that women are dictators
all, and I recommend to you this moral:
In real life it takes only one to make a quarrel.”
—Ogden Nash (1902–1971)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)