A History of Kentucky Baptists, From 1769 to 1885, by J. H. Spencer, 1886,
Rprinted by Church History and Archives, 1976, Lafayette, TN. Simpson
County.

WILLIAM LOWE, a very eccentric man, although a member of no church, after
he came to the West, was one of the earliest and most active preachers
within the bounds of old Red River Association.  An aged citizen of
Simpson county communicated the following sketch of this singular man,
some fifteen years ago:
     He was born in Virginia, Feb. 17, 1756.  In early childhood he was
taken by his parents to Orange county, North Carolina, where he was raised
up.  At the age of 20, he enlisted in the Colonial Army and served a term
in the War of Independence.  He then apprenticed himself to a wheel
wright.  On the 21st of May, 1778, he was married to Margaret Fair.  He
was a recklessly wicked youth; but was under conviction of sin, at the
time of his marriage.  His wife, also, very soon fell under deep
conviction, and the bridal chamber became a house of mourning.  Having no
Bible of their own, they borrowed one, and gave themselves to reading
God's Word, and to prayer.  The wife was first to find peace.  She
immediately united with a Baptist church.  After a time, Mr. Lowe united
with the Methodists.  Six years later, he moved to "the Indian-land" in
South Carolina.  Here he joined the Baptists, and was set apart to the
ministry.  He preached only a few months when he was excluded for heresy. 
After this he joined the Dunkers; but left them in less than a year, after
which he never belonged to any church.  In the Spring of 1796, he moved to
Sumner county, Tennessee, and, in October of the same year, having
previously opened a trace across the Ridge, he settled in what is now
Simpson county, Ky., and became the first resident in that district.  Here
he spent the remainder of his life.  Being a man of warm benevolence, of
great energy and perseverence, and, withal, a very skillful mechanic, he
was very useful to the future settlers of the county.  He manufactured the
first axe, the first plow, the first spinning wheel, and the first mill
(for making hommony [sic]) that were made within the present limits of
Simpson county.  He also preached the first sermon and married the first
couple (James Butler and Charity Lowe) in that county.  He was very
eccentric, and was generally supposed to be crazy; but he matained [sic]
an unimpeachable moral character, and devoted his energies, with great
activity, principally to the good of others, and was held in high esteem
by his neighbors.  As soon as the people began to settle around him, he
began to preach to them with much zeal, going from house to house, warning
and entreat[ing] sinners, with many tears.  He baptized no one, and
gathered no church, but he sowed the seeds of gospel truth in virgin soil,
and watered them with his own tears, and the "great Day" will reveal
whatever of good he accomplished.  He became very corpulent in his old
age, but still continued to preach; and when he became too helpless to
stand, he would sit in a chair and exhort the people.  He died of dropsy
of the heart, March 9, 1835.  Among his last words were these:  "If this
is death, is is not so bad as I expected."

Lowe Fair
=
VA Orange-NC SC Sumner-TN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/simpson/lowe.w.txt