Dana M. Dowst was born around May 1841 in Maine to Henry and Mary Dowst. His father was a farmer who owned $1,500 of real estate and $956 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Vienna, Maine, and by 1860, he was working as a farmer.
He enlisted in the Union army on October 13, 1862, and he mustered in as a corporal in Company E of the 24th Maine Infantry. He died of disease at Bonnet Carré, Louisiana, on March 28, 1863.