Background
His father was David Lowry, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister of Scots descent.
His father was David Lowry, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister of Scots descent.
He was elected to the Territorial Council, as the first mayor of the city, and to the Minnesota State Senate in 1862. Repeatedly attacked in writing by the abolitionist newspaper publisher Jane Swisshelm, he found his political influence reduced. He started a rival paper The Union, which became the Saint Cloud Times.
He died young in 1865.
Born in Kentucky, Lowry became an Indian trader and slaveowner. In 1847 Lowry moved to Minnesota, settling in Brockway about 10 miles north of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, on the Mississippi River.
He moved to Saint Cloud in 1853. His success as a trader enabled him to build a large mansion there.
Lowry took slaves with him as laborers, although the territory organized as "free" or without slavery.
Initially he worked as an Indian trader, establishing a wide network. More Southerners entered the state after 1857, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that, as slaves were not citizens, they had no standing to file freedom suits. Its decision that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional meant that Minnesota"s prohibition against slavery could not be enforced.
Although the numbers of slaves were not high, several counties around and including Saint Cloud had populations of slaves brought by Southerners before the American Civil War.
When the war broke out, most of the Southerners left, taking their slaves with them. He was elected to the Minnesota Territorial Council, serving from 1852-1854.
He served as the first mayor of the newly incorporated city in 1856. The city hospital was built on land which he had owned.
He started a rival paper, The Union, to offset her paper"s opinions.
lieutenant continued as the Saint Cloud Times. He was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 1862. He died in Saint Cloud in 1865.
Lowry became active in the Democratic Party in the territory, and established himself as the political boss of Saint Cloud. Active in the state party, Lowry was being groomed to run as Lieutenant Governor.