EDGAR S. DOWE

One of New Haven's valued citizens, president of the New Haven Towing Company and a widely known authority on maritime affairs, was the late Edgar S. Dowe, whose death on February 7, 1912, after a residence of thirty-three years in the city of New Haven, removed from that place one of the most conspicuous figures connected with its shipping and harbor interests.

Mr. Dowe's family is southern in its origin, his grandfather. William Dowe, being the owner of very valuable property on Roanoke island, North Carolina. He was one of the best known and most prosperous planters in that whole region and lived his entire life on his estate, which he managed in a most successful manner. Like all large landowners of that time and place he owned many slaves, and it speaks well for the mildness and inherent justice of the man that, after the Civil war, they all returned to their old master. A son of William Dowe and the father of Edgar S. Dowe, was Walter Dowe, who set an example to his son by becoming a sailor and eventually became captain of a vessel trading with the West Indies. After the war, however, he retired from this life and once more made his abode on Roanoke island, in due time inheriting his father's estate. To his wife, who had been Miss Margaret Meekins of that place, and him, were born three children: Blanche, who became Mrs. William Forbes; Edgar S.; and Thomas A.

Edgar S. Dowe was born on Roanoke island, December 12, 1858, and there passed his childhood and youth up to the age of twenty years, gaining, in the meantime, an excellent education at the local schools. In 1879 he removed from his early home to New Haven, where he resided during the remainder of his life. The following year he began the long association with the New Haven Towing Company, which was to close only with his death. After a few years service as an employe he bought a half interest in the company and in course of time was made its president, an office he held until his death. The affairs of the concern were never so prosperous as under the long and able management of Mr. Dowe, who interested himself not only with its immediate business but with the improvement of docking and harbor conditions generally, and doing most valuable work for the maritime interests and the fort srenerally.

It was not only as president of the great company that Mr. Dowe devoted himself to tins work. As time went on he became a prominent figure in many departments of activity in New Haven. Especially was this the case in local politics, which he entered while still a very young man, allying himself with the city organization of the democratic partv, of whose principles and policies he was an ardent supporter. Later he was made harbor master, acting with so much vigor and sense ill that office that he was appointed by the gov-ernor of Connecticut a member of the board of harbor commissioners. Here again he proved himself extremely energetic and effective, doing much for the cause of harbormen generally and proving himself so greatly interested in the subject that his fellow members of the board elected him harbor inspector. In tins most important and responsible position Mr. Dowe proved himself more valuable than ever, and gained the approval of the community generally, and especially of those whose business made them interested in the harbor facilities. But it was not, by any means, only that aspect of city affairs connected with his own business that Mr. Dowe concerned himself with. On the contrary public affairs generally interested him and he gave a large amount of his time and attention to the welfare of the community from a general point of view. In 1890 he was elected to the New Haven city council, serving on that body until 1898, and was then twice consecutively elected an alderman. In these several offices Mr. Dowe displayed his customary good sense and energy, and was appointed the aldermanic member of the board of finance, one of the most difficult and responsible positions in the whole city government.

Besides these public and private activities, Mr. Dowe was conspicuous in social and fraternal circles in New Haven and was a member of many important organizations. Mr. Dowe took great interest in Masonic circles; he was a thirty-second degree Mason, member of Wooster Lodge, No. 79, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Franklin Chapter, No. 2, Royal Arch Masons; Harmony Council, No. 8, Royal and Select Masters; and New Haven Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar. In the Scottish Rite he affiliated with E. G. Storer Lodge of Perfection, Elm City Council, Princes of Jerusalem, New Haven Chapter Rose Croix, and Lafayette Consistory, Sovereign Princes of the Royal Secret, the latter of Bridgeport; he was a Noble of Pyramid Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport. He was a member of the American Economic Association, the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, the New Haven Masonic Club, the New Haven Knights Templar Club, the New Haven Publicity Club and the New England Order of Protection.

He and his wife were members of the Congregational church at East Haven and were very active in its work, at one time being connected with the Christian Endeavor Society, and he was a supporter of the church interests, giving generously alike of his effort and money.

Mr. Dowe married June 29, 1881, at New Britain, Connecticut, Edith Augusta Church, a native of East Haven, Connecticut, a daughter of Daniel M. and Sarah Eliza (Hill) Church, both of whom are deceased. Mr. Church was a well known builder of steeples in his time, having erected as many as fourteen in various parts of the state. Mrs. Dowe resides on Sherman avenue in New Haven.

The influence of such a life as Mr. Dowe's does not cease with death and is often not adequately felt until some time after that sad event. The results of his efforts are cumulative, at it were, and will doubtless in the future be enjoyed by many who are unaware of its source. He was a practical man of the world who sought diligently his own interests, but in that search he never for an instant forgot the rights of his fellows nor the pertinent fact that the interests of all men are in the highest sense inseparable. His duties as a citizen and a neighbor he discharged, not merely well, but in a manner that displayed an unusually keen sense of the social obligations existing between man and man and a highly altruistic impulse to aid in furthering the welfare of the community. It was not alone in his conduct in public office that this was shown, although this well exemplified it, but quite as much in his personal relations with men wherein he acted with a charity and tolerance born of the true democracy of his spirit. It was doubtless this attitude to his fellows that gave him the wide-spread popularity which he enjoyed and made him one of the best known figures in New Haven. It was this also that made the sense of loss occasioned by his death seem so personal a one to such large numbers of his fellow citizens.

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