Cultural
Background Storyteller's Cabin
Written by Craig Dominey
There comes a time in life when we all need a little guidance - a little helpful push to remind us what's right and wrong. And for some folks, that guidance comes from some good old fashioned, fire and brimstone preaching.
Now these days, you can't turn on the TV without seeing one religious channel after another. But back in the old days when there wasn't any TV - or cars for that matter - the traveling preacher was the only man of God some country folk got to see.
Lorenzo Dow was one of the best-known traveling preachers back in the 1800s. He was a funny looking man from Connecticut - tall and skinny with wild eyes, long stringy hair, a thick beard, and a slight hunchback. But he also had a booming voice that made sinners across the country shake in their boots. "Repent now, my brothers and sisters! Repent!" he would scream in every town he visited, and many people did just that.
Lorenzo loved the outdoors, and would rather sleep on cold, hard ground in the woods than the most comfortable feather bed in town. He'd been on the road preaching since he was a teenager, and figured there was no town wicked enough, or tough enough, to withstand his crusade for God.
But then, Lorenzo Dow had never visited Jacksonboro, Georgia.
Now, back in those times, Jacksonboro was a tough frontier town about 100 miles upriver from Savannah. Tough, rugged lumbermen cut the town out of the Georgia pine wilderness. Each day they'd chop down trees and ship them downriver to port markets in Savannah. It was back breaking work, and after a long day, the men liked nothing better than a good stiff drink.
Well, make that many stiff drinks. Folks used to say there were so many drunken brawls in Jacksonboro saloons each night that, the next morning, you'd see children picking up eyeballs in tea saucers! So needless to say, the men of Jacksonboro were not going to be the most receptive crowd for a traveling preacher.
But that didn't stop Lorenzo Dow. He rode into town one day and immediately began preaching about the evils of alcohol. "That whiskey is the Devil's water!" he screamed at the gathered crowd. "You're all goin' straight to Hell if you don't watch it, no doubt about it!"
Now, Jacksonboro was already a pretty rough town. But Lorenzo had the additional misfortune of arriving on the day the townsfolk were celebrating the naming of Jacksonboro as the county seat. So many of the men were roaring drunk, and in no mood to be lectured. So they pelted Lorenzo with rotten vegetables and screamed, "Go home, preacher man! Nobody cares what you got to say!"
The crowd then laughed, turned away and went back to the saloons. But they didn't call Lorenzo "Crazy Dow" for nothing. Rather than heed their warning, Lorenzo marched into the nearest saloon and began preaching all over again. "I may forgive you for what you did, but God won't!" he yelled. "And the Lord's gonna put an end to your sinful ways right now!"
And with that, Lorenzo grabbed an iron tool and broke open a barrel of whiskey, sending its contents spilling onto the floor. Then he smashed the whiskey glasses on the bar. "Listen to me - leave this den of sin right now and get right with the Lord!" he yelled.
Well, that was the final straw. The townsfolk grabbed Lorenzo and threw him through the doors of the saloon. They pushed him to the ground and gathered around him - a drunken, crazed mob. "What should we do with him?" one of the men asked. "Hey, somebody get a rope! Let's hang him!" screamed out another. Cheers erupted from the crowd as the men grabbed Lorenzo and looked around for the nearest tree.
