History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/William G. Dows
WILLIAM G. DOWS was born in Clayton County, Iowa, August 12, 1864. He was educated in the public schools of Cedar Rapids and Shattuck Military Academy from which he was graduated in 1883. Upon the organization of Company C, of the Iowa National Guard, he became a member and served in various positions finally attaining the rank of colonel of the regiment. When the Spanish-American War began, he became colonel of the Forty-ninth Iowa Infantry and served with his regiment for one year in Cuba. In 1897 Colonel Dows was elected on the Republican ticket to a seat in the House of Representatives in the Twenty-eighth General Assembly from Linn County. He was reëlected in 1899 serving in the following Legislature as chairman of the House committee on appropriations.