Dows, Stephen Leland, capitalist, of Cedar Rapids, has for many years been prominently identified with the most important business interests of the city and state. He has built many miles of railroad in Iowa and the northwest and developed many prosperous towns. The town of Dows in Wright county was named for him. He descended from Laurance Dows, who was born in 1613 in Boughton, County Hants, England, and emigrated previous to the year 1642 to Boston, Massachusetts, and settled about the year 1649 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, [where he died March 14, 1692.]

Jonathan Dows, son of Laurance, was where he died March 14, 1692.

[Jonathan Dows, son of Laurance, was] born in 1661 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He is said to have been a man of high repute and one of his Majesty's counsel, enjoying the title of Hon. Jonathan Dows, Esq. He was appointed Justice of the Court of Common Pleas June 27, 1718, and appointed Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in December, 1718. He served in these capacities until 1741. Eleazer Dows, great-grandfather of Stephen L., was a son of Jonathan. He was born March 2, 1728, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He was one of those who signed the petition November 24, 1773, against the importation of tea by the East India Company. In 1775, at the burning of Charlestown during the battle of Bunker Hill, his property was entirely destroyed and his family fled to Sherborn, Massachusetts. In the list of losses, June 17, 1775, Eleazer Dows makes claim for various amounts, which were afterward paid by the government to cover the loss of his property.

James Dows, son of Eleazer, was grandfather of Stephen L. He was born April 28, 1769, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He enlisted January, 1813, for eighteen months under Captain Crooker in the Ninth United States Infantry, commanded by Colonel Learned. On April 14, 1814, he re-enlisted for and during the war. In the battle of Chippawa, Canada, July 5, 1814, he was wounded and carried to the military hospital, where he died August 10, 1814. The statement of the widow shows that he enlisted in 1812, which is supposed to have been in the state militia.

Thomas Dowse, the literary leather dresser of Cambridge, was a son of Jonathan, brother of James and great uncle of Stephen L. He was a most remarkable man in his way. He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, when the people were in the midst of Revolutionary excitement. The family fled for their lives at the burning of the town on the 17th of June, 1775, first to Holliston and then to Sherborn, where the father was obliged to start anew at his trade as a leather dresser. A better extract of his life cannot here be given than that expressed by extracts from the lectures and eulogy by Edward Everett, who says: "I have the pleasure to be acquainted, in one of the neighboring towns, with a person who was taught the trade of a leather dresser by his father and has all his life worked and still works at his business. He has devoted his leisure hours and a portion of his honorable earnings to the cultivation of useful and elegant learning. Under the same roof that covers his workshop he has the most excellent library of English books, for its size, with which I am acquainted. The books have been selected with good judgment, many of which were imported from England by himself. What is more important than having the books, the proprietor is well acquainted with their contents. He was the first in America to raise a monument to the immortal printer, Franklin, which he did in a way quite characteristic of the man. He did not attempt to raise money by subscription, but put his hand in his pocket and , in a quiet way, made his plans which resulted in the erection of the monument at Mt. Auburn."

He also erected a smaller stone near by to mark his own resting place. Toward the close of his life he wisely provided for keeping together his valuable library by donating it on the 30th day of July, 1856, to the Massachusetts Historical Society to be forever kept by them in one room of a fireproof building; to be used there, but never to be removed. The asylum for aged, indigent females and the Massachusetts general hospital received additions to their funds from the same source as well as a large amount left to his executors to be distributed for charitable, literary and scientific purposes. The Dowse High School and City Hall at Sherborn stands as a monument to his memory. The Dowse Institute at Cambridge is the result of a fund the income of which is spent for charitable purposes. At present the income is spent for a course of lectures, concerts and readings held in Union Hall each year. On the largest of a chime of bells in the tower of Grace Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is inscribed: "Let the name of Thomas Dowse of Cambridge be remembered; the liberal man deviseth liberal things."

Adam Dows, son of James, was the father of Stephen L. He was born November 9, 1792, in Sherborn, Massachusetts. In early manhood he went to New York City and embarked in business and married Miss Maria Lundy, daughter of Captain Lundy of New York City, who died in China, being detained there by the War of 1812. In 1836 Adam Dows moved to Troy, New York, where he died December 10, 1868.

The parental grandmother of Stephen L. was a Leland, a family as distinguished as the Dows family. The genealogy of the family is traced back distinctly to John Leland, who was born in London, England, in 1512, as accomplished scholar, flourishing during the reign of Henry VIII. among his descendants in the old world were Rev. Drs. John and Thomas Leland, eminent authors of the eighteenth century. Henry Leland, the progenitor of all who bear the name in this country, except by adoption, is supposed to have emigrated to the United States about 1652, and settled in what afterwards became the town of Sherborn, Massachusetts. His children who lived to grow up were Experience, Hope Still, Ebenezer and Eleazer, from whom has sprung a numerous family, many members of which are quite distinguished, as American biographical history shows. All left issue but Eleazer. Among the prominent men in this family was "Elder" John Leland, many years a resident of Cheshire, Massachusetts. He lived a short time in Virginia, and in 1789, in a Baptist general conference, he boldly denounced slavery as a "violent deprivation of the rights of nature." The prominent professional men and eminent scholars of this name are numbered by the hundreds. There are eleven generations of the Leland family in this country.

To Adam and Maria Lundy Dows was born in New York City, October 9, 1832, Stephen Leland Dows. The only schooling the boy received was at the public schools of Troy, New York, before the age of nine years. At the age of fourteen Stephen entered a machine shop in Troy, New York, to learn a trade. He was an energetic and diligent youth, mastered his trade, and then aspiring to a larger field, resolved to go West. He reached the city of Milwaukee in 1848 with seventy cents in his pocket somewhat uncertain if his future, but full of courage and willing to accept any honest employment. For many years his life was full of hardships. His first occupation was found in Badenoquett, Michigan, where he spent a year in a lumber camp working for twelve dollars per month. He then crossed the peninsula from Badenoquett to Lake Superior, going through a dense forest and wilderness and arrived at Marquette early in November, 1849, the first tree having been cut in the clearing where that beautiful city now stands on July 10, 1849. He was one of the first white men to winter there. He worked in the first machine shops, ran the first engine and assisted in erecting and running the first steam hammer erected on Lake Superior. Two years later he returned to Badenoquett, where he again engaged in lumbering, remaining there until the spring of 1853. He then removed to Muskegon, Michigan, to become the superintendent of a lumbering establishment.

Mr. Dows came to Cedar Rapids, April 12, 1855, to locate permanently. He became engaged in the saw mill and lumber business in Linn and Jones counties, and for a time was superintendent of the Variety Manufacturing Works at Cedar Rapids. So for his career had been one of untiring labor, with little financial profit. He had gained largely in experience, however, and became a capable and energetic man.

In 1860 he was drawn to the Rocky Mountains by the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak, but after a year of rough prospecting and quartz mining, returned to Cedar Rapids. In August, 1862, his patriotic ardor for the Union led him to enlist in Company I, Twentieth Iowa Infantry, and he bore a man's part in the Civil War. Going to the front as First Lieutenant, he was appointed Acting Brigade Quartermaster of the First Brigade, Second Division, Army of the Frontier. From exposure and overwork he became disabled and was obliged to leave the service the first year.

After the war Mr. Dows engaged in railroad building under contract, and was now rewarded for his long career of honest enterprise and patient efforts by abundant success. The original seventy cents with which he began life in the west was soon succeeded by a fortune. Mr. Dows rose to the position of one of the most extensive and prosperous contractors in the West. His earnings in railroad building were largely increased by ventures in land. He bought large tracts of land situated in eligible locations, at low prices, and has gained a large amount of capital by developing towns in Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota. Able in financial management, sagacious in judgment, a man of the strictest probity of character, he has always commanded the implicit confidence of those with whom he has dealt, and success has rewarded all his ventures. He has invested largely in real estate in Cedar Rapids and the three Dows blocks are monuments of his public spirit and enterprise. He has also been interested in banking, manufacturing, etc.

Always a republican, Mr. Dows was elected from his district to the state senate in 1875, serving in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth General Assemblies. He is a member of the Second Presbyterian church of Cedar Rapids and an elder of the same. He is a man of benevolent disposition, very generous to the poor, dispensing his charities in the most secret manner.

On the 31st of October, 1855, Stephen L. Dows was married to Miss Henrietta W. Safley at Sugar Grove, Linn county, Iowa. She was of Scotch parentage, born at Tweed Mouth, England, and came to America with her parents at the age of eighteen months. She was the daughter of Thomas Safley, of Linn County, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Dows have had six children, all yet iving but the first born, Minnie Maria, who died in budding womanhood in her fifteenth year, on the 14th of July, 1871, and Stephen Leland Jr., who was born February 1, 1867, and died July 5, 1899. The living children are: Elizabeth Holroyd, born November 17, 1858; Elma Ellsworth, born October 13, 1861; William Greene, born August 12, 1864, a sketch of whose life is given in this volume, and Susan Henrietta, born July 28, 1871. Mrs. Dows was a noble Christian woman, and was thoroughly devoted to the interests of her family. Like her husband, she was very sociable, abounding in hospitality, and was a rich entertainer. She departed this life August 7, 1893.

Mr. Dows is purely a self-made man. Cast upon his own resources at an early age, he educated himself and developed into a skillful mechanic, and later in life, into an eminent business man and a legislator with but few peers in the commonwealth. With rare exception, whatever he has touched has been prosperous.

Dows, Colonel William Greene submitted by Dick Barton

Dows, Colonel William Greene, of Cedar Rapids, is a native of Iowa, born in Clayton county, August 12, 1864. Few young men in the state are as well known as Colonel Dows, because of his prominence in military affairs and as a member of the legislature. He is the son of Stephen L. and Henrietta Safley Dows, who were early settlers in Iowa, settling on a farm in Linn county. The sketch of their lives is given elsewhere in this work. William G. Dowa was educated in the public schools of Cedar Rapids and in Shattuck Military School in Faribault, Minnesota. He graduated from this school in June, 1883, and in the same year went into business with his father and began his military career. He began as a private, assisting in the organization of Company C, First Regiment, Iowa National Guard, at Cedar Rapids, and has since filled every position in the regiment up to and including the colonelcy. When the Spanish war began he went with his regiment to Camp McKinley at Des Moines and on the 26th of April, 1898, the regiment was mustered into the United States service with Colonel Dows at its head. The regiment then became known as the Forty-ninth Iowa United States Volunteers. Its first camp was at Jacksonville, Florida, then at Savannah, Georgia, whence it was sent to the Island of Cuba and saw a year's service in different parts of the island. The regiment was not mustered out until after peace had been declared and the treaty signed. The records of the War Department at Washington show that no regiment in the volunteer service made a better record than the Forty-ninth, and very few as good. Colonel Dows had studied military science to good purpose and he understood how to take care of his regiment. Upon the reorganization of the National Guard after the Spanish-American war, Colonel Dows was unanimously elected colonel of the Forty-ninth Regiment Iowa National Guard. In 1897 Colonel Dows was elected by the republicans of Linn county to represent them in the legislature as a member of the house, and in 1899 he was re-elected. During both sessions he served on important committees and during the second session he was chairman of the appropriations committee. In this responsible position his excellent business training became of great value to the state, and the appropriations work of that session was highly creditable to those having it in charge. Colonel Dows has always been an active republican and has taken a prominent part in party conventions and is well known as an influential factor in Iowa politics. He has been a member of the city council of Cedar Rapids.

Masonry had strong attractions for Col. Dows and he has risen to the thirty-second degree, is a Knight Templar and Past Master of Mount Hermon Lodge No. 263 of Cedar Rapids. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows and of the Presbyterian church. He was married in Cedar Rapids, October 9, 1890, to Margaret B. Cook, daughter of J. S. Cook and Vallissa L. Cook. Mrs. Dows was born in Jamestown, New York. Her father, J. S. Cook, was one of the prominent wholesale grocers and wholesale dry goods merchants in Iowa. Colonel and Mrs. Dows have two children: Sutherland Cook, born July 3, 1891, and Margaret Henrietta, born July 6, 1895.

In 1858, Mr. Duncombe became one of the editors of the Fort Dodge Sentinel, which had been started by A. S. White, in July, 1856. Some years later he was editor and proprietor of the Fort Dodge Democrat, but he never relinquished his law practice while connected with journalism. In 1859 he was nominated by the democrats of the Thirty-second district, consisting of twenty-three counties, for state senator, and was elected, serving four years. He has been a member of the house twice, and was, for eighteen years, one of the regents of the State university. He lectured on railroad law in the university for ten years. He was one of the Iowa Columbian commissioners, having charge of the Iowa exhibit at the World's Fair, in 1893. For more than thirty years Mr. Duncombe has been one of the ablest leaders of the democratic party of the state, and has often been on their ticket for presidential elector. He has been the candidate of his party for lieutenant-governor, supreme judge, and representative in congress; but large republican majorities, in state and district, have always defeated him. It has often been remarked that if Mr. Duncombe had been a republican he could easily have obtained any office within the gift of the people, as his ability is unquestioned. But he has been a sincere free-trade democrat all his mature life, and the state of his adoption is one of the republican strongholds of the union. The congressional district in which he lives has never failed to give an immense republican majority since its organization. While giving his chief attention to the practice of law, Mr. Duncombe has been an active promoter of several railroads and other business enterprises. He was one of the incorporators of the Iowa Falls & Sioux City railway, the Mason City & Fort Dodge railroad, the Fort Dodge & Fort Ridgely, now the Minneapolis & St. Louis railroad, and all other lines projected to enter Fort Dodge. He was also one of the first to develop the coal mining interests in that section, and was the builder of the principal hotel in Fort Dodge. For many years he has been engaged largely in coal mining and in the manufacture of stucco and all its products from the extensive gypsum deposits which underlie a large tract of country about Fort Dodge, his sons having charge of the business.

While Mr. Duncombe had given his services largely to the legal business of the Illinois Central Railway company, holding the position of district attorney, having nineteen counties in three states in his jurisdiction, he has had also a large general practice. He has defended in twelve trials for murder and prosecuted in two. When the great legal contest was made over the validity of the prohibitory amendment to the state constitution, Mr. Duncombe, with Judge C. C. Nourse and Senator James F. Wilson were appointed by the governor to represent the State in sustaining the legality of the act. He was chairman of the Iowa delegation to the democratic national convention held at Baltimore in 1872, which nominated Horace Greeley for president. In 1892 he was again chosen chairman of the Iowa delegation to the Chicago national convention, but having been selected to present the name of Governor Boles as a candidate for president, he resigned the chairmanship, and presented the Iowa candidate in a speech of great power and eloquence. May 11, 1859, Mr. Duncombe was united in marriage with Miss Mary A. Willliams, daughter of Major Williams, the founder of Fort Dodge and for many years one of the best known citizens of northwestern Iowa. They have two sons and three daughters living. The family attend the Episcopal church. No citizens of northwestern Iowa has done more to develop its great natural resources than John F. Duncombe; and for more than forty years his time, money, best energies and superb executive ability have been devoted to the building up of his beautiful home city.

Of robust build, commanding figure and presence, an eloquent and impressive public speaker, a genial companion and neighbor, a vigorous and resourceful antagonist in legal or political conflicts, he can give and take sturdy blows and harbor no resentment. Some of his warmest friends are life-long political opponents. They respect the manhood of one who is true to his political convictions, and has battled for a generation courageously in a hopeless minority.