Mason County, West Virginia Biography of JOHN JAMES DOWER This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the sketch subject. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 450-451 Mason JOHN JAMES DOWER, mayor of Point Pleasant, has throughout his active life been identified with the business interests of Mason County, in which county he was born at Hartford, February 8, 1868. His father, Patrick F. Dower, was born in County Water- ford, Ireland, in 1841, came to the United States in 1860 and settled at Hartford, West Virginia, and his business was chiefly as a contracting teamster and farmer. He died at his home at Graham in Mason County in July, 1918. He was a democrat and a Catholic and active in the Mason County Grange and Farmers Alliance. Maria Theresa Weaver, who became his wife, was born in Mason County in 1851 and died at Graham in 1890. Her children were: John James; George W., a farmer at Graham; Margaret A., of Graham; Mary E., wife of Thomas O'Conner, a merchant at Graham; Patrick V., of Martins Ferry, Ohio; Staunton M., a merchant at Columbus, Ohio; Albert A. and Jerome A., in business at Pittsburgh; Agnes T., wife of William Lightly, of Pittsburgh; Mrs. Frances M. O'Shaunnessy, of Pittsburgh; and Josie E., wife of William Boggess. John James Dower acquired the equivalent of a high school education in Mason County, and from the age of seventeen to twenty worked on the home farm. After that he was in the mercantile business at Graham until 1905, and during fifteen years of that time was station agent for the Ohio River Railroad, which in 1900 became part of the Baltimore & Ohio system. For seventeen years he was either postmaster or assistant postmaster of Graham. For several months Mr. Dower was a salesman for the Star Grocery Company of Parkersburg, and then returning to Mason County was with the mercantile firm of W. E. Hay- man & Company at Letart. June 1, 1906, he became a traveling salesman and vice president for the Point Pleas- ant Grocery Company, and that has been his chief business ever since. In 1920 he was chosen secretary and treasurer of the Davis Orchard Company of Mason County. Mr. Dower was elected mayor of Point Pleasant, May 21, 1921, and began his orderly and efficient administration of municipal affairs July 1, 1921. He is a democrat, a mem- ber of the Episcopal Church, is a past master of Minturn Lodge No. 19, F. and A. M., was high priest in 1921 of Point Pleasant Chapter No. 7, R. A. M., Is a past com- mander of Franklin Commandery No. 17, K. T., is a member of the Lodge and Encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and past chancellor of Oriental Lodge No. 49, Knights of Pythias. During the World war he served as county food administrator, and gave his effective aid to all patriotic causes. In 1899, near Letart, he married Miss Carrie B. Luse, daughter of Algernon and Rhoda E. (Hart) Luse. Her father was a soldier of the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Dower have five children. The oldest, Theresa A., was born in May, 1900, is a graduate of the Point Pleasant High School, has gained some scholarship honors in the extension work of the University of West Virginia, where she is now regularly enrolled as a sophomore, and during the summer of 1921 she was an instructor in the extension department. Eleanor, the second child, was born March 14, 1903, is a senior in high school; Mary, born in 1905, is in the sophomore class; and the two younger children are John J., Jr., born in 1908, and Louise, born in 1912.