Charlemagne Tower

Charlemagne Tower (April 18, 1809 – July 25, 1889[1]) was an American lawyer and businessman active in acquiring land in the Schuylkill Valley in Pennsylvania and serving as an officer for coal and railroad companies.

He organized and led a company of Union soldiers from Pottsville in a 3-month enlistment during the American Civil War when he was commissioned as captain.

After the war, with sell-off of lands by the Northern Pacific Railroad, he acquired large tracts in the upper Midwest and Northwest.

After settling his father's estate, Tower started working with the Graham Law Office of New York City.

[2] In 1846, Tower relocated to Orwigsburg, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in order to work with the legal issues regarding land claims to large coal and mineral deposits in that area.

Not long after Tower came to Pottsville, he began furiously purchasing and clearing liens to lands containing large anthracite deposits in and around Schuylkill County.

This was part of an elaborate land-grab scheme devised by Tower and his partner, Alfred Munson of Utica, New York.

In short, the partners hoped to create a single landed estate, which would have measured 65 by 4+1⁄2 miles (104.6 by 7.2 km) at its widest point in southwest Schuylkill County.

At the time, the Schuylkill Valley was a hotly contested territory, with constant conflicts over titles, some dating to before the American Revolution and British colonial rule, and rights.

Had any of their competitors became aware of what Tower and Munson were up to, they may well have bought up the land the pair were after, and charged exorbitant prices for it, or worse, refused to sell it at all.

Within ten days of the outbreak of hostilities at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, Tower recruited some 270 Schuylkill County men to enter the Union Army under a three-month enlistment agreement.

This unit was referred to as the "Tower Guards", and they were created as Company H of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment; this was attached to a brigade commanded by Major General Robert Patterson.

"[5] On April 18, 1863, he was appointed Provost Marshal for Schuylkill County and assumed the duty of conscripting men needed for military service.

The draft was so vigorously resisted by the farmers and miners in Schuylkill County that Tower was assigned two companies of militia to assist him in enforcing conscription.

At Tower's suggestion, the mine operators in Cass Township filed affidavits attesting to intimidation by groups of miners to stop work or drive off obnoxious bosses and enforce a closed shop, which is presented as an antiwar conspiracy.

[12] After the war he joined the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States as a First Class Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery.

[13] After Tower's active Civil War service (yet still in the midst of settling the Munson–Williams case), he was named the U.S. Provost Marshal for Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District.

At this time, he engaged in several business ventures, such as proprietorship of the Honeybrook Coal Company, and membership of the board of directors of the Northern Pacific Railway.

In 1878, George Ellsbury migrated to North Dakota and became interested in Tower's property in Cass and Barnes counties.

Having become a real estate agent and believing that the area then known as Spring Tank would be a prime setting for a new town, Ellsbury contacted Tower about purchasing the site.

[15] Ellsbury, a former artist for Harper's Weekly and Leslie's Illustrated Magazine, turned real estate agent, was typical of the land speculators who moved to the west.

While miners prospecting for gold were striking out, others were discovering that the area was rich in iron ore. George C. Stone, a banker from Duluth, heard of large ore deposits in the Mesabi Range, which lies west of the Vermilion.

Tower agreed to allow a prospecting expedition on the Mesabi, and sent his son-in-law, R.H. Lee, and Professor Albert Huntington Chester of Hamilton College, along with Stone.

By 1887, iron ore was discovered in lands north of the town of Tower, which were purchased by a syndicate of East Coast financiers.

Porter of the Union Steel Works and the Rockefeller family, wanted to purchase Tower's railroad in order to extend it to their lands.