J. D. B. De Bow

James Dunwoody Brownson De Bow (July 20, 1820 – February 27, 1867) was an American publisher and statistician, best known for his influential magazine De Bow's Review, who also served as superintendent of the U.S. Census from 1853 to 1855.

His mother, Mary Bridget, was born into an elite planter family from South Carolina.

Her father, William, was a soldier in the American Revolutionary War.

In 1866, he became the first president of the proposed Tennessee and Pacific Railroad, a business venture that he would not live to see fulfilled.

Less than a year later, De Bow died of peritonitis, which he contracted on a trip to visit his brother in New Jersey.