Rees Bowen

Rees Tate Bowen (January 10, 1809 – August 29, 1879) was a nineteenth-century American congressman, magistrate and judge from Virginia. He was the father of Henry Bowen.

Biography Born at "Maiden Spring" near Tazewell, Virginia, Bowen attended Abingdon Academy and later engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was appointed a brigadier general in the Virginia Militia by Governor Henry A. Wise in 1856 and served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1863 to 1865. Bowen was magistrate of Tazewell County, Virginia, for several years prior to the Civil War and was presiding judge of the county court a portion of that time. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1872, served from 1873 to 1875 and afterward resumed his agricultural pursuits. Bowen died at his estate called "Maiden Spring" in Tazewell County, Virginia, on August 29, 1879, and was interred in the family cemetery on the estate.

Bowen was among the over 1,800 members of Congress who enslaved human beings at some point in their lives.