Henry Dowst was born around 1817 in Vienna, Maine, to Ozem Dowst and Betsey Burrell. He married Mary J. Blackstone, and they had at least eight children: Dana, born around May 1841; Selden, born around March 1843; John, born around 1845; Henry, born on October 3, 1847; Laforest, born on September 21, 1849; Annette, born around 1854; Granville, born around 1857; and Alice, born around 1858.
They lived in Vienna, and Dowst worked as a farmer. By 1850, he owned $1,000 of real estate. A decade later, he owned $1,500 of real estate and $956 of personal property. Four of his sons served in the Union army, and two of them died: Dana on March 28, 1863, and Selden on May 13, 1865.
By 1870, he owned $1,500 of real estate and $2,500 of personal property. He died of an enlarged prostrate in Vienna on July 10, 1895.