An attorney in Jacksonville, Oregon, Dowell was a native of Virginia, born in 1826. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in law in 1847. Dowell came overland to California in 1850, but migrated to Oregon almost immediately. With little legal business in Oregon, Dowell taught school and then ran a pack train from various points to the gold region of southern Oregon and northern California in the 1850s. He resumed practicing law after his pack train was captured by a group of Native Americans.
Dowell practiced law in Jacksonville, and specialized in pressing “Indian depredation” and military expense claims for Oregonians who had suffered genuine or fancied losses. Many of these claims were against the Federal government, so Dowell spent much of his time in Washington D.C., being shunted from one treasury official to another. Similar to most attorneys of the time, he had political ambitions. To gain a political career, Dowell purchased the Oregon Sentinel (Jacksonville) in 1864. Through his wife and a series of eight editors he ran the paper remotely for fourteen years. His political ambitions were never realized, and he remained a claims agent and attorney. Dowell died in 1897.
From the guide to the Benjamin Franklin Dowell papers, 1847-1882, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries)
