John Henry Bowen (September 1780September 25, 1822) was an American politician who represented
Tennessee in the
United States House of Representatives.
Biography
Bowen was born in
Washington County, Virginia
Washington County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,935. Its county seat is Abingdon.
Washington County is part of the Kingsport–Bristol–Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statis ...
in September 1780, son of Captain William Bowen and Mary Henley Russell. He moved with his parents to Sumner County in 1784. When he was sixteen years of age, he attended school in
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
. In approximately 1800, he studied law in the office of John Breckinridge in Lexington and was admitted to
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
.
Career
After two years Bowen returned home and began practice of law in
Gallatin, Tennessee and soon gained prominence. He was a colonel in the Continental Army.
Bowen was elected to the
Thirteenth Congress, which lasted from March 4, 1813 to March 3, 1815, as a
Democratic-Republican
The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...
. He then continued to engage in the practice of law in Gallatin until his death there.
In 1815 Bowen married Elizabeth Allen. They had four children; two who died young, and two who reared large families. The eldest, Mary, married Judge Jacob S. Yerger of Greenville, Miss. a member of the famous Yerger family formerly of Lebanon. They had three sons killed in the Confederate army. Grant Allen Bowen married Amanda Yerger. They left two children John H. Jr., and Mary.
Death and legacy
Bowen died on September 25, 1822, at about age 42 years. The location of his interment is unknown.
His brick home, bought by Governor William Trousdale, was presented by the widow, Mrs. Anne Berry Trousdale, to the Daughters of the Confederacy.
References
External links
Ancestry.comUSGenWeb Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, John Henry
1780 births
1822 deaths
People from Washington County, Virginia
American people of Welsh descent
Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee
19th-century American legislators