Lowe Avenue
632 W. from 2400 S. to 12943 S.
Samuel J. Lowe was an early Chicago constable and sheriff. Although born in England, Lowe was no Anglophile. And, if somebody proposed the possibility of English superiority in Lowe's house, he might be shown the door. And yet, Lowe was said to have been a hospitable man.
A Justice of the Peace and two-term sheriff (1842 and 1844) Lowe was firm and cool-headed. He never backed down, but he never resorted to weapons. He was sheriff at a time when the Chicago jail was a log building and the state prison was at Alton.
Lowe was an easy-going and friendly man, but his job required that he witness the Friday, July 10, 1840 execution of John Stone, convicted of murdering a Chicago woman. In one early Chicago History book, it was noted, "The inner heart of Mr. Lowe would gladly have turned him aside from seeing the death agony, even while his high sense of duty led him to unflinchingly stand upon the scaffold.