Sylvanus B. Lowry (July 24, 1824 – 1865) was an AmericanDemocraticpolitical boss, newspaper publisher and pioneer inSt. Cloud, Minnesota before theAmerican Civil War. He moved there from Kentucky, bringing slaves with him as laborers. He was a profiteer of slavery-related-enterprises.[1] He was elected to the Territorial Council, as the first president of the town council (the office of city mayor did not yet exist), and to theMinnesota State Senate in 1862.
Repeatedly attacked in writing by theabolitionist newspaper publisherJane Swisshelm, he found his political influence reduced. He started a rival paperThe Union. He died young in 1865.
Born inKentucky, Lowry became a trader and slaveowner. His father was David Lowry, aScottish-AmericanCumberland Presbyterianminister andmissionary to theWinnebago people in northeastIowa.
In 1847, the Lowry family followed the Winnebago as they were forcibly moved to a new Reservation surroundingLong Prairie, Minnesota. Lowry settled inBrockway Township, about 10 miles north ofSaint Cloud, along theMississippi River.[2] He moved into St. Cloud in 1853. His success as a fur trader enabled him to build a large mansion there.[3] His father, aPresbyterian minister who established aCumberlandmission; and his sister Elizabeth and her husband also migrated to St. Cloud by 1854.[3] Lowry took slaves with him as laborers, although the territory residents had voted to have it be "free" or without slavery. Initially, Lowry ran a very wide and very profitable network trading with the Indians for furs.[2]
More slave-owning Southerners entered the state after 1857, when theUS Supreme Court ruled in theDred Scott case that, as slaves were not citizens, they had no standing to filefreedom suits. Its decision also that theMissouri Compromise was unconstitutional meant that Minnesota was unable to enforce its laws against slavery. Although the numbers of slaves were not high, several counties around and including St. Cloud had populations of slaves brought by Southerner vacationers before theAmerican Civil War. When the war broke out, most of the Southerners left, taking their slaves with them.[3]
According to historian Christopher Lehman:
The Majority of Minnesotan opposed making slavery legal in their territory. Some wanted the practice abolished nationwide, but most opponents simply did not want the economic competition that slavery threatened. Minnesota's government officials did not want wealthy slaveholders to replace them as the territory's political leaders, and working-class laborers did not want competition with slave labor to cause their wages to decline.
— Christopher P. Lehman,Slavery's Reach (2019)
Lowry became active in theDemocratic Party in the territory. He was elected to the Minnesota Territorial Council, serving from 1852 to 1854. the town council voted him council president of the newly incorporated city in 1856.
Active in the state party, Lowry was being groomed to run asLieutenant Governor. He is well known inMinnesota folklore for his conflict with the abolitionist newspaper publisherJane Grey Swisshelm, who repeatedly attacked him for his slaveholding as well as for allegedly defrauding theWinnebago people, damaging his political influence. He started a rival paper,The Union, to offset her paper's opinions.[3]
Lowry was elected to theMinnesota State Senate in 1862. He died ofcancer in St. Cloud in 1865.[2]
