JAMES R. DOW

Arriving on Maui sometime in 1850 at the age of 25, Dr. James R. Dow was to practice there for seven years. His headquarters were at Lahaina where he had his office and established a drug store. He was a boarder at the home of Dr. Dwight Baldwin, who described Dow as a "sincere Democrat", and there were many spirited discussions around the dinner table.

In 1853 Dr. Dow was appointed one of the agents for Maui by the Commissioners of Public Health. During the small-pox epidemic of that year he, Dr. F.W. Hutchinson, and Dr. Baldwin vaccinated as many people as possible. Their vigorous vaccination campaign, coupled with a determined effort to segregate any persons coming to Maui from the other islands, kept cases to a minimum. In an effort to quarantine each case at the earliest sign of the disease, Dr. Dow is credited by Dr. Baldwin with sending one man to the hospital with nothing more serious that "a great crop of mosquito bites".

Dr. Dow left the Islands aboard the "Yankee" for San Francisco in May, 1857. His death was reported from Aiken, South Carolina, where he had gone for his health, on February 27, 1871, at the age of 46.

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