Dow preaches in Natchez, escapes Choctaws & weds Peggy by Stanley Nelson - posted Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 @ 12:35 pm  E-mail Story |  Print Story  (2nd in a series) In 1799, after Natchez became American and Congress created the Mississippi Territory, the Methodists put into motion a plan to spread the Word of God throughout the region, which then included most of present day Mississippi and Alabama. Later, the plan included Orleans Territory (present day Louisiana) following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The Methodists sent circuit riders, some of whom ended up as residents and leading citizens of the new territories. Their main tasks were to go to the wilderness settlements and hold services, often outdoors, and preach the Word. A major goal was to inspire and support the formation of Methodist churches in these settlements. The camp meetings were a key ingredient of this missionary work. Among the early circuit riders -- but not the first to arrive in Natchez country -- was Lorenzo Dow, a native of Connecticut who was eccentric, occasionally confrontational and determined. His first visit to Natchez came in the late spring of 1803. With 25 cents in his pocket, the 26-year-old evangelist left Connecticut for Georgia, riding "an old mare" and stopping along the way to preach wherever he came into a settlement. According to his journal, which was published in the 19th century book, "History of Cosmopolite," Dow arrived in April at the Tombigee River in Alabama, then part of the Mississippi Territory. He traveled 70 miles in that area preaching wherever he found an unsaved soul or a Christian needing fellowship: "The inhabitants are mostly English, but are like sheep without a shepherd...A collection was offered to me, but I did not feel free to accept it; and I left the settlement, procured some corn, and had not a cent left." He and three other travelers made their way west through the Choctaw nation to "the Natchez settlement, which we reached in six days and half." Along the way, Dow traded his saddlecloth to an Indian "for corn to feed my horse...Here I was called to another exercise of faith, having no money, and a stranger in a strange land, but my hope was still in God..." For the full story, subscribe to the The Concordia Sentinel's NEW E-Edition!