AREA HISTORY:  Visit of Lorenzo Dow, Lewisberry, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Abby Bowman

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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VISIT OF LORENZO DOW, Page 636

Visit of Lorenzo Dow. – This singular and eccentric man, whose name was known in 
every section of the United States, as an evangelist, visited Lewisberry in the 
year 1825, and preached to a large audience in the old stone Methodist Church.  
He remained one night with Hugh Foster, and the next day was driven toward 
Harrisburg.  In the northern part of the county he preached in the woods to a 
small audience.  At the conclusion of the service he announced that in two years 
from that day, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, he would preach from the same 
stump.  He fulfilled his promise, and an immense audience gathered to hear him, 
as he came riding up alone on horseback, at the appointed time.  In stature, he 
was a large man, wore an exceedingly long, sandy beard, and parted his long, 
shaggy hair in the middle.  Beards were unusual in those days.  To gaze upon a 
person with so long a one, was a novel sight.  His voice, as remembered by 
Robert Foster, of Lewisberry, a highly respected citizen, was loud and deep.  It 
was not particularly pleasant to the hearer, on account of guttural tones.  When 
accosted by some inquisitive inhabitant of Lewisberry as to who commissioned him 
to preach, he curtly responded, “Who commissioned Saint Paul to preach?”