[3] According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 0.3 square mile (0.8 km2), all land.

His first Pennsylvania practice was located in Orwigsburg, and then relocated to Pottsville in 1850 when it was made the Schyulkill County seat.

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, NY.

In return, Tower was to receive ownership and title to one half of all the land acquired once all the cost to Munson had been settled, or until Tower paid him half the value of the total land purchase.At the time, the Schuylkill Valley was a hotly contested property, with constant conflicts over titles and rights.

Had any of their competitors become aware of what Tower and Munson were up to, they well may have bought up the land the pair were after, and charged exorbitant prices for it.

Tower would make the purchases, and convey the titles to legal dummies to hide the actual ownership of the land.

By now, Munson and Tower's plan was well out of the bag, and anyone who had even a partial claim to any of the lands began to litigate.

Deciding instead to establish collieries on the land, in March 1868 he leased 1,503 acres (608 ha) (6 km2) to two independent coal companies.

After these initial growing pains, the town grew steadily due to the collieries, and was officially incorporated on December 19, 1892 as a borough of Porter Township, Schuylkill County.

[8] Tower City's emerging coal industry was initially serviced by the Good Spring Railroad, which built an extension from Donaldson to the Brookside in 1867.

[9] The Brookside branch was cut back to Keffer's Station in 1971, ending Tower City's connection with the then-Reading Company.

On August 2, 1913, a double explosion occurred at the East Brookside Colliery, claiming the lives of eighteen men and seriously injuring two more.

After the colliery had ceased production on Thursday night, Charles Portland, a contractor for the Reading, kept some of the men at work.

At about noon, men on the surface reported a rumbling sound, which was followed by clouds of dust from the main entrance and fan-house.

Management had suspected that the tunnel was nearby, and had instituted a program of drilling 26-foot-long (7.9 m) test holes in the work areas to probe for water.