Bill O’Dowd and Tay Pay Pryor sang together and possibly drank together. Tay Pay Pryor was Thomas P. Power, but just who was Bill O’Dowd? All Laura Ingalls Wilder tells us is that he is tall and his brother brought him to a claim in Kingsbury County to keep him from drinking. The two saloons in De Smet were two too many, according to Charles Ingalls.
Bill O’Dowd was actually William Dow, brother of Lorenzo. The Dow brothers filed on neighboring claims in Township 110, Range 57. And if I had The Book of Dow in front of me, I could come up with more, but I don’t, so I can’t.
