Early Life and Career
Louis Brownlow was born in Buffalo, Missouri, in August 1879. His parents were Robert Sims and Ruth Amis Brownlow. His father had been a soldier in the Confederate States Army, serving in the Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas area, and had been wounded in the hip by a minié ball. His parents, each of whom had taught school at some time, moved from Giles County, Tennessee, to Missouri some time between 1877 and 1879 after Robert Brownlow was appointed postmaster for the town of Buffalo. Louis was frequently ill as a child, and educated at home. He was unable to attend college due to his family's poverty, but read books extensively.
In 1900, Brownlow was hired by the Nashville Banner, and over the next several years wrote for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Louisville Times, and several other newspapers in Tennessee as well. He also worked for the Haskin Syndicate as a political writer and later as a correspondent in Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East from 1906 to 1915. He ghost-wrote Haskin's 1911 book The American Government, which was an influential treatise on Progressive ideas about public administration.
He married the former Elizabeth Sims (daughter of Congressman Thetus W. Sims) in December 1909. The couple had no children. Brownlow was a member of the Democratic Party and a Methodist, and belonged to the Cosmos Club and National Press Club.
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