SAMPSON DOWER

CORNISH MINER AND MINNESOTA LUMBERMAN

By Louis Lehmann

Sampson Dower was born at Crowan in 1835 as the eighth of nine children in the family of William and Phillipa (Walters) Dower. If Sampson’s mining family was like many others in Cornwall at this time, they probably lived in a small cottage with walls made of straw and clay, sometimes mixed with dung The home may have included a loft and maybe a lean-two. The floor was probably a mixture of lime and ash. Perhaps there was a small garden.. Next to the pathway by their home there may well have been an open drain where the family emptied their slops and dishwater. There it would decay and stink until heavy rains would mercifully wash it into the waste areas around the nearby mine

When Sampson was six years old, his mother died in childbirth in October, 1841 at age thirty-nine.¹ Five months later, his oldest sister, Elizabeth (19) died from “inflammation of the bowels, perhaps due to problems of diet and/or sanitary conditions which were common in mining families. She was survived by her father and the younger children: ² At that time William (16) and Joseph (14) may well have been working with their father as copper miners. (The younger and less skilled miners were known as “Tutworkers”, usually working on exploratory work sinking shafts or driving levels.) Samuel (11) and James (9) could have worked as “picky boys”, working on the surface to separate good ore from the rubbish. Even Mary (8) may have done such work as a “mine girl”., Sampson (6), Phillipa (4), and John (1) were probably the only ones not old enough to do some sort of mine work. But the most dangerous work was that done by their father and the other men working underground for many hours each day except Sunday. There the air was often impure and fouled by the stench of human feces, affecting the lungs of most of the men before they were forty. Many had heart disease, bronchitis, pneumonia, or consumption. Few of the men lived beyond sixty.³

(Three years before Sampson was born (and just a few weeks after the birth of his brother, James), his parents and their neighbors were shocked by news of a sensational murder in Crowan when Zacharias Williams (20) and Benjamin Gerrance (20) were indicted for the wilful murder of Joseph Symons at Crowan, in this county, on the 2st of July. Williams was eventually convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to transportation. He may have been a son of Thomas and Grace Williams who are on the 1841 census of Crowan along with the family of William and Phillipa Dower. ) ^{4 5}

At age nine, Sampson saw his father marry again (17 October 1844) to Jane Moyle.⁶ Sampson was probably a “picky boy” two years later when his oldest brother, William , married Elizabeth Pascoe. ⁷ Within another two years Sampson bid farewell to the couple and their infant son as the young family joined the hundreds of people who were emigrating to Australia and America. ⁸ Two years later he said goodbye to his father as the elder William died, probably succumbing to one or more of the many health problems afflicting the miners.

Sampson’s brother, Joseph, was next to leave the family when he married his cousin (Mary Dower) in 1849 and settled down in nearby Wendron. Another brother (Samuel) departed the following year, marrying Mary Rule and moving to Camborne where they lived briefly before following William and Elizabeth to Australia . And by the time of the 1851 census of Crowan, Sampson’s sister, Mary, had left the family . She is probably the Mary Dower listed as a servant in the household of John Trevenen at Crowan. Now only Sampson, James, Phillipa, and John remained in the household headed by their widowed stepmother, Jane (Moyle) Dowar. ⁹ .^{10 11 12}

James was probably the next one to leave the family and follow his brothers to Australia. The “First Families 2001" collection of stories says that he quarreled with his stepmother (Jane Moyle Dower) sometime after his father’s death (1848). His father’s will reportedly left everything to his wife and stipulated that his children could to remain on the farm and were to be provided for, but if any one of them was to obstruct her in any way without good cause, they were to be given a shilling and sent on their way. According to the story, James and a brother then went to the U.S.A. and the Californian goldfields. ¹³

The story does not say which brother went with James to California but there is no doubt that Sampson is the one brother who remained in the U.S. However there is no evidence that he ever went to the California goldfields. James Dower appears to have migrated first to the U.S. in 1852 before moving on to Australia. He probably is the “ J Dower” who arrived at New York from Liverpool, 27 Sep 1852, on the “Guy Mannering”^{14 15}

The “First Families 2001" story of James Dower continues.... “After some time James decided to follow the gold rush to Australia and boarded the ship "Venice" in New York and arrived in Melbourne on 27/3/1854. James went to the mines at Creswick, then to Avoca and Chewton where he probably met up with the Bastian family and later at Fryers Creek married his wife Mary Jane Bastian. They moved around the goldfields and eventually settled at Lauriston. James became a mine manager and his obituaries say he made and spent fortunes in mining. James and Mary had 10 children one of whom married the son of Mary's sister Elizabeth George (nee Bastian) and these were the writer's grandparents. James Dower died at his home in Lauriston on 19/3/1906 aged 73. Mary Dower lived on to the age of 93 and died at Glen Waverley Melbourne on 13/10/1930.”¹⁶

John Neal, a descendant of James Dower, expands on this story..... “ After Avoca he went next to Chewton where he and some mates opened up a quartz reef. By 1857 he had moved to Fryers Creek near Castlemaine and while there married Mary Jane Bastian. James and Mary both signed the register but Mary's father Henry Bastian, whose consent was required, signed with his mark. After their marriage James and Mary moved to the Bendigo fields, (actually Bendigo, White Hills, and Huntly) where their first four children were born in 1857, 1859, 1861 and 1863. Whilst in Bendigo the position of mine manager for the Wellington mine at Lauriston was advertised and, although there were a large number of applicants, James was appointed on the recommendation of the well known mining entrepreneur Mr George Lansell. The Wellington mine was very successful under his management. They next moved to Tooborack (64 km from Bendigo on the road to Melbourne) where James held a similar position as mine manager but his stay here was short and by 1865 they were at Inglewood where their next child was born. Mary's father Henry Bastian was probably a miner at Inglewood at this time as Mary's mother Jane had died at Inglewood in 1862. Shortly after the birth of this child they moved back to Lauriston here James opened the well-known and rich "Energetic" mine which he managed, and at the same time held a large interest in the "North Star" mine on the same line of reef. Both these mines were particularly rich in gold and paid large dividends to shareholders. James' next five children were born at Kyneton and Lauriston between 1867 and 1875. After some time as manager of the "Energetic" mine James became manager of the "Napier" mine in Mr Young's paddock at Lauriston and was again fortunate in putting the company on to rich gold. At some stage James had also been the manager of the "United Kingdom" mine at Taradale and was also the first to take up the lease of the "Egyptian" mine at Drummond. Drummond is close to Lauriston on the way to Daylesford and Taradale is between Castlemaine and Kyneton. Lauriston is on the Coliban River between Malmsbury and Lauriston reservoirs and about 7 km west of Kyneton. In its heyday Lauriston was a large town with permanent buildings for emporiums and hotels etc but today there is virtually nothing left except for a few farmhouses and recent weekend fishing shacks along the river........... James and Mary's house is one of the few still surviving........ It has been restored by two maiden lady farmers who have added a brick extension........... James eventually retired from mining and ran a couple of hotels in Lauriston but found this life not to his liking and became a farmer. After a time his natural love for mining got the better of him and he returned to prospecting. James' obituaries in the Kyneton Observer of 22-3-1906 and the Argus in Melbourne of 27-3-1906 say he made and spent fortunes in mining.. ..........A grandson of James, whom I won't name, told me the story of how James suffered from gout late in life and he would send a couple of his grandsons with a billy to the local Lauriston pubs to buy beer for him and the young devils would drink some of the beer and then restore the level by urinating into the billy. He says James never woke up and always swore that Lauriston beer was the best in the world.” ¹⁷

Sometime between the 1851 and 1861 census returns at Crowan, the last two of William Dower’s children left their step-mother’s household. Phillipa married William Tresidder at Crowan on 1 August 1857. ¹⁸ And according to John Neal.....“John migrated to Victoria and lived at Lauriston and was married to a Mary Jane Brockenshire or Brokenshire.” ¹⁹ Thus the 1861 census of Crowan lists Jane (Moyle) Dower with just two others in her household; Jacob and Grace Moyle, apparently husband and wife and probably relatives of Jane. However on the 1871 census of Crowan, Jane’s household has expanded as it now includes William and Phillipa Tresidder and their four children. Jane does not appear with them on their listing in the 1881 census. ²⁰

According to John Neal..... “ James and at least one brother quarreled with their stepmother and consequently packed their belongings and migrated to the U.S.A. where they went to the California goldfields.” As noted earlier, Sampson was the one brother who settled in the U.S. (although there is no evidence that he ever went to the California goldfields). But perhaps he too

was in conflict with his widowed step-mother. Whatever the circumstances, Sampson Dower arrived in New York from Liverpool on May 23, 1853 on the ship, “Robert Kelly”.^{21 22}

Wherever Sampson may have been in the next nineteen months, he definitely was in Michigan on Christmas Eve, 1854 when he married Mary Ann Gilbert at Eagle River.²³ The marriage was witnessed by Ed Hulbert. A year earlier Hulbert had made the first of a series of discoveries which eventually led to the discovery of the Calumet Conglomerate Lode - later to become, the richest copper mine in America. Earlier in his career, Hulbert worked with a number of miners - one of whom was Captain Edward Jennings of the Cliff Mine where Sampson Dower probably went to work sometime in 1953 after disembarking at New York and making his way to Michigan ²⁴

Sampson may have known some of Captain Jennings’ relatives in the Crowan area. ( Edward Jennings was born in Gwinear, less than eight miles from Crowan. One of his brothers may have been born in Crowan. And some of the Jennings people, possibly related to Captain Edward Jennings, are listed on the 1841 census of Crowan along with Sampson Dower who is listed as a sixteen year old copper miner, perhaps working at one of the area’s mines which were overseen by the Jennings family.) ²⁵

When Sampson emigrated in 1853 he might have first gone to a Jennings farm north of Pittsburgh where many people from the Gwinear area visited to get started with their new life in America. Like many of those people, Sampson may have gone from Pittsburgh to work for Captain Edward Jennings who became the first mining captain of the Cliff Mine after coming to Keweenaw in 1844 to work for the Pittsburgh and Boston Mining Co. led by John Hayes of Pittsburgh. Sampson may then have moved on to Ontonagon in 1858 in order to be with Captain Jennings.²⁶

Sampson probably met Mary Ann Jilbert in 1854 if not in the fall of 1853 when the Jilbert family moved to Eagle River from Isle Royal where Mary Ann’s father, William Jilbert worked as a miner in the Siskowit mine while her mother, Mary Jane (Trevithick) Jilbert, ran a log storeroom and boarding house housing twelve single Cornish miners. (Mary Jane Trevithick’s grandfather, John Trevithick, was the uncle of the famed Cornish inventor, Richard Trevithick) The Jilberts came from Illogan (near Camborne) to Philadelphia in the spring of 1846. From there they may have gone first to Albany, New York and then by way of the Erie Canal to Lake Erie, Detroit, Straits of Mackinac, down Lake Michigan to Milwaukee, and then overland to Mineral Point, Wisconsin where the family worked in the tin mines there (perhaps in nearby Dodgeville) until moving to Milwaukee where they appear on the 1850 census: (William Gilbert 38 miner, Mary Gilbert 37, Jane Gilbert 16, Mary A Gilbert 13, Eliza Gilbert 11, Caroline Gilbert 7, Thomas Gilbert 5, Charles Gilbert 11 months). At some point in the next several years, the family moved from Milwaukee to Isle Royal. During their residence on Isle Royal, Mary Ann and her sisters probably helped their mother in cooking and washing for the miners; planting oats, potatoes and other vegetables, fishing (there is still a place on Isle Royal called “Gilbert’s hole”, marking where the family fished); and caring for the younger children. ^{27 28}

After the Jilberts moved to Eagle River from Isle Royal, Mary Ann’s father may well have been working with Sampson Dower at the Cliff Mine. Most if not all of the miners lived at Clifton, the village that grew up by the mine. It was there where Sampson and Mary Ann’s first child, Mary Ellen, was born ( Feb 27, 1857). Her birthplace was a rough settlement. Weekends and holidays in Clifton were characterized by drunken brawls. Some of the men kicked and beat their wives, chasing them from one place to another until the poor woman would hide in some house to wait for her husband to sober up. One of the miners murdered the town blacksmith in 1862. ^{29 30}

Infestations of lice were described by Clifton’s schoolmaster who observed that “There are lice enough in the head of most any child to make a Cornish pasty.” A few years later epidemics of scarlet fever, influenza, and kidney disease erupted. Typhoid claimed the life of Mary Ann’s niece, Isabella (daughter of Mary Ann’s sister, Jane, who had married Harlow Everett. On January 30, 1864, schoolmaster Henry Hobart wrote.. “Yesterday I went with the school to the funeral of one of my scholars, Isabella Everett. She was a bright-eyed little girl of ten with bright red hair which hung in beautiful curls. She was a fine little scholar and went to school last winter and spring. Her father moved to the Phoenix this summer. She had the Typhoid fever and was sick four weeks. Although a great sufferer in her last moments, she died happy kissing her little sisters & saying she was going to Jesus. Such an example is somewhat strange in a child of her age. She was a member of the Sunday School and loved by all. How sad to see the young die when giving promise of future excellence etc. Three of my scholars have died since I came here. No one can tell who may be called next. ” ^{31 32} (The first sermon in Clifton had been preached by Rev. John Pitezel in 1846. He was a close friend of Rev. Samuel Spates, the grandfather of Frances Elizabeth Ewing who married Bryce Lehmann , a grandson of Mary Ellen Dower and father of Louis Lehmann. , Sampson’s and Mary Ann’s first daughter, born at Clifton in 1857) ^{33 34}

By 1858 or 1859, Sampson and his little family were living in Rockland . They may have followed Captain Jennings who is listed there as a mine captain on the 1860 census. But other miners were leaving Clifton during the 186s to work at other area mine paying better wage and having shallower mine shafts than those at the Cliff Mine. Whatever the reason, their next two children were born at Rockland.: ( Matilda - Mar 11, 1859) and William (May 23, 1860). The next six children were also born in Ontonagon county, probably at Ogema” Sampson (July 22, 1861), Phillipa (Jan 25, 1863), John (July 7, 1864), Samuel (May27, 1866), Isabella (Nov 8 1867) and Adelaide (June 21, 1869). Sampson appears to have been working at the famous Minesota Mine inasmuch as that is the name in the post office entry on the 1860 census page listing his family. During the next nine years he may have also worked at other mines in that area such as the Mass Mine and the Ogema Mine. ^{35 36 37}

It was a rough life for miners’ families in those days. A fight in 1857 at Rockland escalated when an Irishman murdered a Cornishman. Dozens of Cornishmen then set fire to an Irish store and then drove the Irish out of Rockland. Four hundred Irishmen then swore revenge and set out for Rockland. However they decided to drink instead and never did arrive.³⁸ Conditions may even have worsened , after the outbreak of the Civil War as groups of Cornishmen and Irishmen often continued to battle each other in drunken street brawls. Beatings, stabbings, and stonings left victims wounded and maimed. Insubordination and rudeness against legitimate authority was frequently a problem for mine managers. Threats of arson and murder became more dangerous during the isolation of winter when there was little chance of getting help from outside the community. ^{39 40}

Such conditions may have influenced Sampson Dower to migrate from Michigan to Minnesota. The last record of his life in Michigan is an item from the Portage Lake Mining Gazette, dated March 25, 1869, announcing that he and two other men have been named as constables in Greenland Township in Ontonagon county. ⁴¹ At that time he may have been tiring of mining. For there had been little improvement of mining methods during that decade. Miners still carried candles stuck in clay to light their way. Ventilation methods in the mine were no better. The method of ventilating the mines remained unchanged. Ordinary gunpowder was still used for blasting. Miners still drilled by hand with chisel and sledges, and they still shoveled and carted rock by hand. Until the last part of the decade, they still climbed the long ladders for as much as a thousand feet to get to or from work. With the end of the Civil War, the price of copper began to fall into a gradual decline for the next twenty-five years. As income dwindled between 1865 and 1870, the mines anticipated less profit. All of this probably made life in Michigan much less attractive for Sampson and his family. ⁴²

As he was moving his family from Michigan, probably for many reasons, Sampson may well have had help from friends or associates when he settled in Duluth. In 1869 the Portage Lake Mining Gazette reported that “James Edwards, formerly of Ontonagon, has a sub-contract of grading on the railroad above Duluth”..... “It is reported that J.D. Hoyt, agent of the Rockland mine goes to Duluth soon to take charge of the building of the big hotel”.... “Mr. J. E. Hoyt, agent of the Rockland Mine, is superintending the work on Geo. B. SARGENT's hotel - in Duluth” ⁴³ Hoyt may have been able to help Sampson find some work after he arrived in Duluth. And Edwards may have been in a position where he could help Sampson some time later in acquisition of land from the Northern Pacific Railroad.. In any case Sampson’s family is listed on the 1870 census in Duluth: Sampson (36), Mary Ann (34), Mary Ellen (13), Matilda (11), William (10), Sampson (9), and Phillipa (7). Seven more children were born at Duluth in the next eight years: Caroline (b. 1871), Joseph Herbert (b. 1872), Lillian (b. 1874), Edith (b. 1875), Annie (abt 1877 - died young), and Ethel ( “Nettie” b. 1878).

Sometime in the late 1870 Sampson and his family apparently settled in Thomastown in Wadena County. Sampson first worked briefly taking a homestead two miles north of Aldrich and Staples. There Sampson apparently organized some logging activities for the benefit of the railroad. News articles in 1879 noted ... “Neighborhood News from Aldrich - Our new school house which Mr. Dower has been building, we understand is now completed.” and “S. Dower of Thomastown had fifty men in the woods making ties and getting out wood and piling for the railroad company.” ⁴⁴ But Sampson was exploring the area during the previous two or three years which included the devastating grasshopper plague of 1877 and a smallpox epidemic as reported by the Wadena Tribune in 1878 .... “... we did have a hard siege of this loathsome disease...so many of our citizens obliged to remain here in the midst of this loathsome horror, knowing not the dy or the hour when they or their family might fall victims.” ^{45 46} Sampson may have been in the area as early as 1876, working briefly for Farnham & Lovejoy, lumbermen. ⁴⁷ There is a record of Sampson Dower selling land in Wadena County to C.P. Bailey in 1877. Another record shows L.D. French purchasing 200 acres of land in Wadena county from the Northern Pacific Railroad Co on June 26, 1877. ⁴⁸ This suggests that Sampson’s son-in-law, Louis Daniel French, may have been helping Sampson in those early explorations. Louis Daniel French, married Sampson’s oldest daughter, Mary Ellen (“Nellie” ) in April, 1876, probably at Duluth. ⁴⁹ ( Louis Daniel French is also listed as the Wadena County Superintendent of Schools in 1878). ⁵⁰

By 1882, Sampson and his sons had started large scale lumbering just north of a little lake where they developed a little settlement which included a population of 150, twenty-five houses, a hotel, a blacksmith shop, a school, a sawmill, a grain warehouse, a post-office (where Lewis Daniel French served as postmaster as did Sampson’s daughter, Adelaide.), and the Dower-French store The store was first built part way between Staples and the Dower Lake settlement before being purchased by Dower and French and then moved to the Dower Lake settlement. ⁵¹ (A business named “Dower and French” appears on the early tax records of Staples Township The settlement was named “Dower Lake” and was laid out and platted as a township in 1884. But during the next six years the settlement at Dower Lake eventually disappeared as Staples was destined to become a railroad village. Sampson then established a sawmill in Staples. Subsequently he and his sons developed an extensive lumber business around Fishtrap lake in November, 1890 and then on to Cushing. At Cushing the family business literally went up in smoke when Sampson’s mill and several million feet of fine lumber were destroyed by fire. After this event he did not rebuild but focused on his farm north of Staples. It was known as the largest and best equipped farm in Wadena county. ^{52 53} . ^{54 55}

Family life for the Dowers was much different than it is today, as evident from an account of a letter written by William Dower to the Wadena Pioneer Journal: “The letter recites that the writer does not remember seeing much money in those days..when a man needed a sack of flour, he took his axe, cut down a tree and traded it for what he needed. He says that each week he and his wife gathered up a wash tub of eggs and traded them at the store for what he needed. Butter was the only article that the farmer could sell for cash. He says that they had no money but they never went into debt. They used to get their money by taking five gallon jars of butter to town and selling them for one dollar apiece.” Other accounts of family life in the area describe how ... “Every homemaker made her own candles, butter, soap, preserved and canned, and especially cared for meat - smoke, cured in a brine, and when butchering in the dead of winter had a “meat barrel” - to be sure, it was frozen.” ⁵⁶

The family did have opportunities for fun. In 1880 they could have been entertained at Peake’s Opera House in Wadena where the Wadena Dramatic Society presented “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and where holidays were celebrated by festive dances. After the “Thanksgiving Ball” Christmas Eve was celebrated by a “Grand Promenade Concert and Ball” - followed a week later by a “New Year’s Ball.” In 1883 they may have been impressed by Wadena’s victory over Bluffton in a baseball game. Unless there was a misprint in the news report, the score was an incredible 140 to 0 ⁵⁷ A year later Sampson and his family took an excursion trip on an experimental run of a steam boat on the Crow Wing River. (The boat was removed from the area when it became evident that the river was not suitable for a steamboat line) T he Dowers may well have joined neighbors in such recreation as bicycling and water tobogganing at their former Dower lake settlement which had become a popular place of recreation by 1897. Some of their leisure pursuits in 1893 were less active..... “A basket social will be given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Dower in Thomastown, tomorrow evening. Free ride to and from the farm.” But Dowers may well have frowned on some other sources of entertainment for area citizens. In 1889 more buildings in Staples were being sought for saloons. ⁵⁸ And it is unlikely that the Dowers agreed with the Wadena jury which decided that eight drinks per hour would not make a man drunk. ⁵⁹

If the family attended services in 1890 at the Methodist Episcopal Church’s first building in Staples they would have been in a dirt floor shanty about 16 x 24 feet, made of undressed boards and heated by a large stove in the middle.⁶⁰ It was far different from the United Methodist Church which now stands in Staples where it proudly displays the beautiful “Faith-Hope-Charity” stained glass memorial window donated by “Sam Dower Sr. and Family”. As of August, 2006, the church still includes a descendant of Sampson Dower - Donna Miller who lives with her husband, Pat, just two miles from the site of the old Sampson Dower farmhouse.

Other newsworthy events probably captured the attention of the Dower family during these years. William Jennings Bryan visited Staples on his presidential campaign in October, 1896. Three years later President McKinley and his cabinet passed through Staples, the President speaking briefly. And, like many others in their community, the Dower family must have been appalled by the head-on railroad wreck near Dower lake on the night of June 29, 1902. Eight lives were lost making it the most disastrous wreck in Northern Pacific history. ⁶¹

Sampson’s children were actively involved with the family’s business and farm life. William married Jessie Boyd and was elected to the Minnesota state legislature. John married Rose Miller and moved to Tacoma Washington where he established a prominent lumber company. “John Dower Avenue” and “John Dower School” still exist in Tacoma, commemorating his notoriety. About 1890 Mary Ellen’s husband, Lewis Daniel French, moved his family to Duluth where he was elected alderman. Matilda married Joel Bayer. They moved to Idaho where they settled into farm life. Sampson married Nancy Good and moved to Yakima, Washington where he was a lumber salesman, probably for John Dower’s business. Joseph “Herbert” married Jennie Lewis. Samuel married Edna Baumbach. Joseph “Herbert”and Samuel both remained in the Staples area as managers for the Dower Lumber Company which they continued after their father’s retirement from the business. Phillipa and her husband, Mose Gadway, also stayed in Staples where he worked in the Dower lumber business and later became a carpenter. Isabella married James Boyd who was a land office agent in Wadena before moving out to Tacoma where an unsubstantiated report claims he was involved in some lumber activities with some of the Weyerhauser family. ^{62 63} Adelaide married Ernest Greeno. Caroline (“Jennie”) married John Weston who was a railroad engineer in Staples. Lillian married William Hipple who was yet another lumberman. She died in 1906 and was the only one of the children to die during her parents’ lifetimes. ⁶⁴

Sampson and Mary Ann Dower were famous for the large family reunions held at their large⁶⁵ farmhouse in Thomastown each Thanksgiving and sometimes at Christmas and other occasions.. One of the reunions was commemorated in a 1912 edition of the Duluth Herald...... “Former Duluth Couple Have Fifteen Children - Staples Minn, Feb. 27.. Mr. and Mrs. Sampson Dower of this city are one of the most remarkable couples living in this section and have a family that would tickle Col. Roosevelt. Mr. Dower is 77 and his wife a few years younger, and they have eight daughters and five sons living and all attended a family reunion held here last week as told in the Herald, during which Mr. Dower placed $100 in gold beside the plate of each daughter and gave an equal amount to the children of one daughter who died. Mr. and Mrs Dower are in splendid health. They lived in Duluth for a number of years, moving here about eighteen years ago. Mr. Dower believes in early marriages and big families and points with pride to his fine family. He was 18 when married.”

Other details about the Dower reunions were revealed in a 1984 interview with Phyllis (Dower) Davis, a daughter of Sampson’s son, Samuel........... “My mother used to say it was horrible - between all the loud voices and the kids crying - and if there was a young baby, they played ‘pass the baby’ cause everybody wanted to hold the newest baby. And she and Dad would come home just beat. She said her ears would ring for two days... The old farmhouse had an immense kitchen.. I can just see that yet and a long table. And that’s where they fed the family and the hired men. And the cook stove. And when they had the family dinner. I remember well. All the married ones sat down first, and then the next ones, and then these younger one - like the teenagers - waited on the table - and then the next down from the teen-agers that were waiting on the table, looked after the little kids.” ⁶⁶

In 1895 Sampson’s son-in-law and former business partner, Lewis Daniel French, died in Duluth where he was a city alderman. Five years later his widow, Mary Ellen (“Nellie” - Sampson’s oldest daughter) was still residing in Duluth with four of her five children (Louis - age 23, Maude - age 17, Ella - age 15, and Clarence - age 6). The other child, Nellie (age 21) is on the 1900 (June 11) Wadena census living with Sampson’s son, John and his family next door to the family of Fred and Annie Lehmann. The census enumerator was Fred’s brother, Albert Lehmann whose courtship of Nellie French is evident by the invitation he sent her to attend his graduation at the University of Minnesota Commencement Exercises, June 3-7, less than four days before the census enumeration ⁶⁷ (Albert’s classmates included John Sargent Pillsbury and Charles Stinson Pillsbury, twin sons of Charles A. Pillsbury, the founder of Pillsbury Mills. ⁶⁸ All of these Pillsburys are distant cousins of Margie (Grove) Lehmann who married Albert’s grandson, Louis, in 2001). Albert and Nellie were married on Christmas Day, 1901 at Sampson’s and Mary Ann’s Thomastown farmhouse. Three of Sampson’s sons; William, John, and Sam; attended the event with their wives. Albert and Nellie then moved to North Dakota, where Albert was assistant principal of the Wahpeton schools. They may have moved back to Wadena two years later when Albert’s father, Frederick, hanged himself in his barn. ⁶⁹

The year 1907 was eventful for the Dower family. A year earlier Sampson and Mary Ann had moved from the Thomastown farmhouse to an elegant new home which they had built in Staples. ⁷⁰ They must have been proud when Sampson’s son, William was elected as a representative to the state legislature. But a much more distressing event occurred when Sampson went down to the railroad buggy to meet his wife who was coming back from Wadena..... “Returning to their fine home in the extreme north of town, a dog frightened the team at the corner of Fourth Street and Second Avenue and the horses ran. As they turned up Fifth Street, the buggy turned over. Both were badly bruised and Mrs. Dower was said to have received an injury there that later took her life.”⁷¹

With family living both in Staples and Wadena, 1910 may have been a year of mixed loyalties for the Dower family when they followed their respective school football teams. For Staples it was the first year they had fielded a team. The first game was with Wadena. Staples lost 53 - 0. ⁷² But Wadena was unscored upon all season as they went on to become state champions. Members of the team included Sampson’s great-grandson, Clarence French (son of Louis Daniel French and Mary Ellen Dower) and Loyal Zimmerman who was Albert Lehmann’s nephew and brother to Wayne Zimmerman who would later become a U.S. Army general.)

The next two years were probably agonizing for the Dower family. It was about 1911 when Mary Ann “Grandma” Dower was afflicted with cancer which resulted in her death a year later, as described in her obituaries........ “ Mrs. Dower’s death was laid to cancer of the face from which she had suffered for about one year. While the cause of the cancer could not be definitely traced, it is, however, believed that it was caused by injuries sustained in a runaway accident in Staples. The cancer first appeared on her tongue. She was taken to Chicago and the most noted specialists were consulted. An operation was performed at the Mayo hospital in Rochester and the cancer removed. After a time it broke out again in the glands of the throat and gradually spread until death ensued. Grandma Dower suffered greatly during the final year of her life. Yet she bore up with Christian gratitude and uncomplaining resignation.” ⁷³ ..... “During her sickness when there was a possible hope to save her, every effort was put forth to secure the best medical help the country afforded, but all hope had to be given up the last time she was taken to Rochester for consultation with the Mayo brothers, who told them that she was beyond all earthly help, a malignant cancer having took deep root in her throat. She came home contented to go as soon as death should release her, but for about eight months she has lingered in the greatest pain ere the summons came that was so welcome to her. During all that time the members of her family have also suffered anguish of heart to see her sufferings...”⁷⁴ Records at the Mayo clinic show that the growth on her tongue had started in October, 1910 and had increased in size by the time she came to the Mayo Clinic on Aug 9, 1911. The next day the front half of her tongue was removed..... “Examination of the tissue showed a grade II squamous cell carcinoma”.... Her physician in Staples reported on Nov 23, 1911 that she had developed a swelling of a salivary gland on the opposite side. ⁷⁵..... Mary Ann’s granddaughter, Phyllis (Dower) Davis (wife of Tom Davis, M.D.) recalled details of the affliction...... “... when she came back, she was terminal - definitely. And she couldn’t make herself understood, of course. With no tongue, she’d go ‘Aw-aw-oh-aw-oh’... And she had a nurse for the last - oh, quite a while in the downstairs bedroom in that house in town. But oh, the way that poor woman suffered. And they just had to dabble and give her a hypo because she didn’t want to become addicted. It was just pitiful really. It was terrible.... They laid it to that” (the 1907 accident), “of course - way back then. And she was bleeding of course, from this cut. So my mother “ (Edna, wife of Samuel Dower) “always speculated - and nobody seemed to know - whether there was some cancer there because they do get in these little glands under the tongue and they’re not always discovered very early. And so there was always the question of whether that really did start the cancer or whether the little tumor was there and it was discovered because they were examining her tongue where it was cut. So there was always that question as far as I know. But she just suffered terribly.” ⁷⁶

Sampson Dower lived just three more years after the death of his wife. He died at age eighty on Sept 14, 1915, having moved in with his daughter, Edith Greeno, about a year earlier. His obituary noted that he was survived by thirteen children, 51 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Including husbands and wives of his children and grandchildren, there were ninety-two members of his family..... “Mr. Dower never fully recovered from the shock of the death of his wife, and although he had been a strong, active and robust man up to that time, he declined rapidly after her death. Grave fears were entertained for his life during the past spring, but with the advent of warmer weather, he seemed to regain some his former vigor which he maintained until about two weeks ago.......... Those who knew Mr. Dower best, recognized in him an honest, upright and industrious citizen, one who commanded and gained the respect of all with whom he came in contact. He was a kind and indulgent husband and father, and as a consequence, the home life radiated nothing but sunshine whether in adversity or prosperity. Through his efforts, eastern Wadena county enjoyed an early prosperity and development. Employment was furnished to scores of settlers, who had no means at the time of improving their own homesteads for lack of funds. When Father Time had dimmed his vision and warned him that he must seek less energetic pursuits, he moved to Staples to be near members of his family. The entire northwest has been familiar with Mr. Dower’s activities in the past and on every hand are heard the expressions of deep regret over the passing of a worthy and time-honored and respected citizen ⁷⁷

NOTES AND REFERENCES FOR

“ SAMPSON DOWER CORNISH MINER AND MINNESOTA LUMBERMAN”

1. Certified copy of entry of death of Phillipa (Waters) Dower. Date and place of death - 5 Oct 1841, Crowan. Cause – childbirth

2. Certified copy of entry of death of Elizabeth Dower. Date and place of death - 7 March 1842 , Crowan Cause - “Inflammation of the Bowels”

3. Faull, Jim Cornish Heritage , pages 9-10. (Incomplete citation. Possibly from “Faull, Jim Cornish Heritage: A Miner’s Story,” 1981 pub. Lutheran Publishing House ISBN 9594601 0 1.

4. . Census: 1841 Cornwall Crowan (Ancestry.com)

5. “The Times”. London, Middlesex, England 1832 August

6. Bishop's Transcripts for Crowan, 1674-1772

7. England: Free Birth, Marriage, Death Index (Ancestry.com)

8. According to the “Dower Family Tree” (bigpond --www.users.bigpond.com/dowdjd/.), William and Elizabeth Dower emigrated to Australia, arriving in Adelaide South Australia in 1848-1849 on the ship "Abberton". From there, they traveled to the copper mines in Burra, (South Australia), Thakarinka, near Broken Hill, and then on to Bethanga in Victoria.

9. Census returns.: 1851 Cornwall. Wendron , Camborne, and Crowan.

10. England: Free Birth, Marriage, Death Index (Ancestry.com)

11. According to the “Dower Family Tree” (bigpond --www.users.bigpond.com/dowdjd/.), Samuel Dower arrived at Australia in 1854 on the “Mobile”.

12. Early in 2006 I found on-line records of "First Families" of Australia which included the family of James Dower (husband of Mary Jane Bastian and son of William and Phillipa (Walters) Dower) as well as information about Samuel Dower. Regrettably these records no longer seems to be accessible on-line (as of August, 2006) but I did find an Australian source person, John Neal, who had contributed to the record. An e-mail reply from Mr. Neal(a great-grandson of James Dower who did the research concerning James Dower and Mary Jane Bastian) on March 4, 2006 provided the following information: ........ "Our Dowers and Bastians all came from the same village of Crowan in Cornwall and I know that Samuel Dower, who came to Victoria ahead of his wife and children, had a son born early in 1851 and a daughter in 1855 and the wife and family sailed from Cornwall at the end of 1857 and arrived here March 1858. Samuel and his wife Mary had two more children after her arrival in Victoria but there is the long gap without children between 1851 and 1855. I think that it is highly likely that Samuel left his wife in Crowan and accompanied his brothers James and Joseph to California and this was probably in 1851 after the birth of Samuel's son. ...... If James' brother Samuel had gone with him to California he must have packed up with the others but headed back to his wife in Cornwall where his next child was born in 1855. He must have then followed James to Victoria and, after settling in, have sent for his family." (John Neal suggests that Joseph Dower emigrated However Joseph and Mary Dowar and their children appear on census returns in Wendron - 1851, 1861, and 1881.)

13. The “First Families 2001" program, sponsored by the State Library of Victoria in Australia, includes a history of James Dower and his family prepared by a descendant also named James Dower.. This was a pilot program funded by the State Library of Victoria, designed to draw together stories of Australian families to celebrate the Centenary of Federation in 2001. ....In acknowledgment of the contribution of the public to the First Families 2001 program, the State Library of Victoria has provided access to the database via the Web in read-only format for an additional three years from the conclusion of data entry on 31 December 2001. This three year extension ended on 31 December 2004 and following recent changes to privacy legislation and associated implications for First Families 2001, the State Library ceased to provide access to the database after this date

14. New York Passenger Lists. (Ancestry.com ) Line: 9 Microfilm Serial: M237 Microfilm Roll: 120 List Number: 1376 (“ J Dower” arrived at New York from Liverpool, 27 Sep 1852, on the “Guy Mannering)

15. John Neal (See Endnote #12) says that the brother who accompanied James to the California gold fields before James went to Australia was either Joseph and Sampson. But Joseph is listed on census returns in England, 1851 and 1861. Sampson is clearly the one brother who settled in the U.S., arriving on the ship, “Robert Kelly” in May, 1853 (New York Passenger Lists, Ancestry.com) and he is in Eagle River, Michigan in December, 1854 when he married Mary Ann Jilbert (Marriage certificate owned by Louis Lehmann)

16. The “First Families 2001" program, sponsored by the State Library of Victoria in Australia

17. E-mail correspondence with John Neal (See Endnote #12)

18. . Parish Records of Crowan, Cornwall, England, (FHL film 0246799).

19. E-mail correspondence with John Neal (See Endnote #12)

20. Census returns of Crowan; 1861, 1871, 1881 (Ancestry.com)

21. New York passenger Lists 1851-1891. 1853. Line 16. Microfilm Roll 126. List #418. Sampson Dower arrived in New York from Liverpool on May 23, 1853 on the ship, “Robert Kelly

22. E-mail correspondence with John Neal (See Endnote #12)

23. Circuit Court, Houghton County, Mich. 24 Dec 1854, Marriage certificate: Sampson Dower and Marian Gilbert.

24. Courter, Ellis W. “Michigan’s Copper Country” (Contribution to Michigan Geology 92 01) http://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-ogs-gimdl-CMG92.PDF........ “Eventually Hulbert acquired land for exploration and mining of the lode and promoted investments by mining companies who engaged him in mine management. But his problems in managing the difficult mining of the stubborn lode led to his discharge from such duties as well as financial reverses and stock losses. Subsequently others made the mining of the lode fabulously successful. Hulbert was given a trust fund and an annuity and eventually moved to Italy where he built a luxurious villa in Rome. He died in 1910 with an estate probated at $280,000.”

25. Census: 1841 Cornwall Crowan (Ancestry.com)

26. Jay Rowe, a descendant of William and Mary Jilbert (parents of Mary Ann Jilbert) has researched the Jennings, Dower, and Jilbert families. He thinks that Sampson Dower did know the Jennings family and probably worked at one of the mines overseen by them in the area around Gwinear and Crowan. He further speculates that Sampson went first to Pittsburgh where someone in the Jennings family sent him on to work for Captain Jennings in Michigan. (3-mail correspondence with Jay Rowe, Aug 17, 2006)

27. Jay Rowe has provided the conjecture about how Sampson Dower may have met Mary Ann Jilbert as well as the history of the Jilbert family in Cornwall, their emigration, and their migration routes through New York and Wisconsin which eventually led them to Isle Royal and Eagle River.

28. Census: 1850 Wisconsin Milwaukee

29. Dower family bible - owned by descendant Donna Miller

30. Mason, Philip P. (ed) “Copper Country Journal - The Diary of Schoolmaster Henry Hobart, 1863-1864" Pp 25-41... “Isabella, the daughter of Harlow and Jane Everett, was 9 years and 8 months when she died. Her siblings were Marritta, Albert, Anna, and Emma. After her death the Everetts had three other children - William, Isabella and Manetta. The wooden gravestone for Jane still stands in the cemetery at the Cliff.” P. 267

31. Mason, Philip P. (ed) “Copper Country Journal - The Diary of Schoolmaster Henry Hobart, 1863-1864" Pp 29-30

32. Census 1860 : Michigan Houghton, Houghton. The family of Ed Hulbert is listed on the page before the listing of Harlow Everett’s family

33. Pitezel, John. Lights and Shadows of Missionary Life. Cincinnati. 1860

34. Dower family bible - owned by descendant Donna Miller

35. Dower family bible - owned by descendant Donna Miller

36. Some of the information about Sampson Dower’s residence and movements was provided to me by Jay Rowe.

37. Census: 1860 Michigan Ontonagon Rockland

38. Rowse, AL The Cousin Jacks page 170

39. Courter, Ellis W. “Michigan’s Copper Country” pp 49-50

40. .Lankton, Larry, Beyond the Boundaries pp 187-88

41. From: Portage Lake Mining Gazette Mar 25, 1869 .......”Ontonagon County, Greenland Township Constables: Sampson Dower, Wm. Harris, Ferdinand Petteran, Geo. W. Smith”

42. Courter, Ellis W. “Michigan’s Copper Country” page 53 and 57

43. “Portage Lake Mining Gazette”, Houghton, Michigan... May 20 and June 10, 1869

44. “Northern Pacific Farmer” Oct 22 and Dec 25, 1879

45. “Wadena Tribune” Feb 2, 1878

46. “Wadena Pioneer Journal” Centennial edition. July 1, 1981

47. Obituary of Mary Ann Dower. Staples World. 1912

48. Wadena Land Records “Recorded A Deeds, p. 238, Deed #1931

49. Sheets, John. “Todd County Histories”

50. Wadena Tribune” Aug 10, 1878

51. “Staples Minnesota Golden Anniversary Celebration 1889-1939. Souvenir Program and History.” p. 6

52. Sheets, John. “Todd County Histories”

53. The Famous and Not So Famous Verndale Historical Society. 1987. A-E P. 323

54. Anderson, Margaret. Northside-Southside, Stories of Staples. 1989

55. “Staples Minnesota Golden Anniversary Celebration 1889-1939. Souvenir Program and History.”

56. Sheets, John. “Todd County Histories”

57. “Wadena Pioneer Journal”

58. “Staples Minnesota Golden Anniversary Celebration 1889-1939. Souvenir Program and History.” pp 4, 9, 19, 21

59. “Wadena Pioneer Journal”

60. “Program of the Staples 75^th Anniversary Celebration”

61. “Staples Minnesota Golden Anniversary Celebration 1889-1939. Souvenir Program and History.” p. 21

62. Sheets, John. “Todd County Histories”

63. The Famous and Not So Famous Verndale Historical Society. 1987. A-E P. 323

64. Sheets, John. “Todd County Histories”

65. “The Duluth Herald” Feb 27, 1912

66. Interview by Louis Lehmann with Phyllis Davis in Wadena – 1984.

67. Census 1900 Wadena, Minnesota

68. The 1900 graduation invitation which Albert Lehmann sent to Nellie French is preserved in the records of Albert’s grandson, Louis Lehmann

69. “Wadena Pioneer Journal”

70. The Famous and Not So Famous Verndale Historical Society. 1987. A-E P. 323

71. “Staples Minnesota Golden Anniversary Celebration 1889-1939. Souvenir Program and History.” Pp 25-26

72. “Staples Minnesota Golden Anniversary Celebration 1889-1939. Souvenir Program and History.” P. 27

73. “Wadena Pioneer Journal” August 1912

74. “Staples World” Vol XXIII 1912

75. Correspondence to Louis Lehmann from Robert A. Kyle, Mayo Clinic, in 1985.

76. Interview by Louis Lehmann of Phyllis Davis in Wadena – 1984

77. “Wadena Pioneer Journal” Sept 16, 1915