Editing Neal Dow (section)

==Early life and family==
Dow was born in Portland, Maine on March 20, 1804, the son of Josiah Dow and his wife, Dorcas Allen Dow.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|pp=2–3}} Josiah Dow was a member of the [[Quakers|Society of Friends]] (commonly known as Quakers) and a farmer originally from [[New Hampshire]].{{sfn|Byrne|1961|pp=2–3}} Dorcas Allen was also a Quaker, and a member of a prosperous Maine family headed by her prominent grandfather, Hate-Evil Hall.{{sfn|Kobler|1993|p=78}} They had three children, of whom Neal was the middle child and only son.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|pp=2–3}} After his marriage, Dow's father opened a [[tanning (leather)|tannery]] in Portland, which soon became a successful business.{{sfn|Dow|1898|p=19}} After attending a Friends school in [[New Bedford, Massachusetts]], and further schooling at [[Edward Payson]]'s Portland Academy, Dow followed his father into the tanning trade in 1826.{{sfnm|Byrne|1961|1pp=7, 10|Miner|1894|2p=399}} He embraced technology, becoming one of the first in the city to incorporate [[steam engine|steam power]] in the tanning process.{{sfn|Babcock|1990|p=25}}
[[File:DowHouse.JPG|left|thumb|[[Neal Dow House]] in Portland]]
Dow struggled to conform to the tenets of his parents' Quaker faith; he was hot-tempered and enjoyed brawling from a young age.{{sfnm|Byrne|1961|1pp=3–4|Dow|1898|2pp=35–37}} As he became wealthy later in life, he enjoyed wearing fine clothes, contrary to the Quakers' preference for plain dress.{{sfn|Babcock|1990|p=20}} Some of his family's other virtues, such as thrift and abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, he adopted early in life.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|pp=5–7}} When he turned eighteen, Dow sought to avoid the required [[Militia (United States)|militia]] musters, more out of distaste for the drunkenness that they often involved than out of Quaker belief in pacifism.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|p=8}} Instead, he joined the [[volunteer fire department]], whose members were exempted from the muster.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|p=8}} In 1827, Dow lobbied the [[Maine legislature]] to reform the fire companies to increase their efficiency.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|p=10}} That same year, he argued against his fire company serving alcohol at its anniversary celebration; the members compromised, and served only wine, not [[distilled beverage|hard liquor]].{{sfn|Byrne|1961|p=13}} At times Dow let his politics interfere with his duties; after being promoted to fire chief, he allowed a liquor store to burn to the ground.{{sfn|Kobler|1993|p=79}}

The next year, Dow met his future wife, Maria Cornelia Maynard, the daughter of a Massachusetts merchant.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|p=17}} They married on January 20, 1830.{{sfn|Dow|1898|p=82}} Over the next twenty years, they had nine children, five of whom (two sons and three daughters) survived infancy.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|p=18}} Maria Cornelia was a [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]], and Dow attended services with her at [[Second Parish Church (Portland, Maine)|Second Parish Church]] regularly, although he never became a member.{{sfn|Byrne|1961|p=20}} Their home, built at 714 Congress Street in Portland in 1829, was converted into a museum after Dow's death and is administered by the local chapter of the [[Women's Christian Temperance Union]] as the [[Neal Dow House]].{{sfn|Neal Dow House 2016}}