Career
Brownlow entered upon newspaper work as a reporter for the Knoxville Whig and Chronicle in 1876. Later in the same year he purchased the Herald & Tribune in Jonesborough, Tennessee. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1880, 1884, 1896, 1900, and 1904. He married Clayetta Ashland, and they had five children, three daughters and two sons.
Nephew of the former Tennessee Governor William G. "Parson" Brownlow, Walter P. Brownlow was a leader who keenly understood the value of constituent services and his career reflects the often wild and wooly political era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Prior to being elected to Congress, Brownlow served as Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives, a post which controlled entry and exit to the House floor, supervised publishing of government documents, and had direct contact with the President as well as Members of Congress. This unique experience allowed him to "hit the ground running" as a Congressman and have extraordinary influence as well as advance his ideas almost immediately upon taking office in 1896. He became a member of the United States House of Representatives when elected as a Republican to the Fifty-fifth and to the six succeeding Congresses, Brownlow served from March 4, 1897, until his death.
Brownlow's proposal for a Bureau of Public Roads which was the first bill initiated in Congress for a unified system of national, state and local roads. Brownlow's concepts helped lay the groundwork for the Veterans Administration hospital system (established in 1930) and the Bureau of Public Roads (now the Federal Highway Administration) which was established six years after his death with the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. Later he became a railroad engineer
The pinnacle of Brownlow's career was the establishment of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers near Johnson City, Tennessee by an Act of Congress dated January 28, 1901. Forty years after the Civil War, the "Soldiers Home" was developed on an unprecedented scale and modeled after the European tradition of institutions providing care for disabled soldiers of Europe's numerous wars during the 18th and 19th centuries. Remarkably, Brownlow secured the "biggest project that ever came south" somewhat as an act of post-war reconciliation between North and South.
In securing passage of his proposal for the Soldiers Home, Brownlow encountered numerous difficulties. At first the Congressionally appointed Board governing veterans benefits refused to hear him, stating that the policy was to discourage homes established by the federal government and supporting only those developed by the states. Brownlow asked to appear before the Veterans Board for five minutes to present his proposal. He told the Board members of the thousands of men in the South and particularly in the First District of Tennessee that risked their lives and fortunes supporting the Union. Brownlow stated that the federal government had recently approved a large sum of money for the establishment of a prison at Atlanta so that southern prisoners would not suffer the rigors of the cold and unfamiliar northern climate. Brownlow concluded his argument with the point that the old soldiers were certainly entitled to as much consideration as were convicts. At the end of his plea, the Board informed him that the members unanimously endorsed his plan for a million-dollar appropriation.
Brownlow's proposal for a federally funded project of a European scale was unprecedented but his sense of timing was perfect. Creating a 450-acre (1.8 km2) campus, the National Soldiers Home included a hospital, lodging for over 3,000 American Civil War veterans, a zoo, a Carnegie library, two lakes, and numerous other amenities all within a park-like setting that was a tribute to landscape architecture of that era. Today the campus houses a major Veterans Affairs Center as well as the East Tennessee State University College of Medicine and Pharmacy. On June 30, 2011, the National Soldiers' Home campus in Johnson City, Tennessee was named a National Historic Landmark.
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