Lorenzo Dow was a preacher in the mode of Jimmy Swaggart in that he also was an entertainer, said Mark Shenise, associate archivist at the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.
“(Dow’s) a showman in many ways,” Shenise said. “He was entertaining to watch. Remember, there is no TV (in the 1800s). There’s no radio, there’s no internet. This was entertainment as well.”
He was pelted with food and rocks at times, particularly in the South when he preached against slavery.
“Lorenzo loved tearing into customs he didn’t like,” according to an article by the New England Historical Society. “He despised slavery, hated alcohol and abhorred Catholics, especially the Jesuits.”
His enemies called him “Crazy Dow” or “Crazy Lorenzo,” nicknames that he apparently did not mind.
Dow likely preached to more people than any of his contemporaries, Shenise said, sometimes to outdoor audiences in the thousands. At one point, his autobiography “The Life, Travels, Labors and Writings of Lorenzo Dow: Including His Singular and Erratic Wanderings in Europe and America,” was second to only the Bible in popularity. It was co-written with his first wife, Peggy Dow.
Dow was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1777, “an asthmatic child and a gaunt, bedraggled adult,” according to the New England Historical Society.
He had visions starting in childhood, Shenise said.
“They were primarily focused on death and divine punishment because of our sinful nature,” Shenise added
According to the New England publication, “He had no taste for hygiene, his hair uncombed and unwashed, his beard full and bushy. He carried only the clothes on his back. Any money he received he gave away to needy people or used to buy Bibles, which he also gave away.”
He became a Methodist as a teenager, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.
“Lorenzo attempted multiple times to join the Methodist Conference,” reported the encyclopedia. “After multiple rejections, the conference accepted Lorenzo temporarily and assigned him to preach in Canada in 1798.”
In 1799, “he received the first of a series of ‘provisional’ appointments to join the Methodist circuit riders who traveled the Connecticut countryside preaching, according to the New England Historical Society. “Yet he repeatedly failed to find support, bouncing from Connecticut, to Massachusetts, to Vermont and New Hampshire.”
He left the U.S. to preach in Ireland, against the wishes of the Methodist Conference back home.
“Upon his return home, Lorenzo once again left his assigned area to preach in the southern United States,” according to the encyclopedia. “In 1802, the conference officially dropped Lorenzo’s name from their rolls. Despite not having any official affiliation, Dow continued his itinerant preaching of Methodist doctrine throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
“Somewhat to the church’s dismay, the public loved Lorenzo and joined up to the church in droves,” according to the encyclopedia.
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