Background
Brabson, Reese Bowen was born on September 16, 1817 in Brabsons Ferry, near Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.
Brabson, Reese Bowen was born on September 16, 1817 in Brabsons Ferry, near Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.
He graduated from Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee in 1840, studied law in Dandridge, and was admitted to the bar in 1848.
He also served one term in the Tennessee House of Representatives, from 1851 to 1852. Brabson opposed secession, and took no active part in the Civil War. Brabson was an elector for presidential candidate Zachary Taylor in 1848.
He represented Hamilton County in the Tennessee House of Representatives for the 29th Tennessee General Assembly (1851–1852).
He was not a candidate for renomination in 1860. During the presidential campaign of 1860, Brabson canvassed for the Constitutional Union candidate, John Bell.
Although a slaveholder, Brabson opposed secession on the eve of the Civil War. When Tennessee seceded in June 1861, he returned to his residence at Chattanooga, refusing to take up arms against either side, though offered a commission by both.
But he also opened his home to the wounded Confederate casualties following the Battle of Stones River in early 1863.
Brabson succumbed to typhoid on August 16, 1863. He was interred in the Citizens Cemetery in Chattanooga.
As a lawyer, he defended James J. Andrews, a Union operative facing court-martial for leading the raid known as the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862.
Brabson was elected as a member of the Opposition Party to the Thirty-sixth Congress, serving from March 4, 1859 to March 3, 1861.