My Genealogy Hound

LORENZO H. TOWER, a successful carpenter and builder, and a highly respected citizen of Cummington, Hampshire County, in which place he was born on August 14, 1830, is a son of Warren and Rhoda (Tower) Tower, and a grandson of Nathaniel and Leah (Tower) Tower.

Nathaniel Tower, who was born in Hingham, Mass., settled in the town of Cummington about the year 1780. He was a successful farmer and land-owner. During the Revolutionary War he served as a patriot soldier. He is also known to have taken a prominent part in town affairs. He died in 1810, sixty-five years of age. His wife, Leah Tower, died in 1847, at the advanced age of ninety-nine years. They were the parents of six children: Leah, Nathaniel, Peter, Ambrose, Roxy, and Warren.

Warren Tower, father of Lorenzo H., was a native of Cummington, where his birth occurred on January 9, 1789. He received only a common-school education; and, although he learned the trade of a carpenter, agriculture was his principal occupation. The first farm he owned was that which is now the property of Mr. Shipman. He had lived there but a short time when he sold it and purchased the B. B. Lyman farm. After he had settled on the latter, he devoted a part of his time to his trade. He was making a success of his farming when he was taken ill, and died May 26, 1834, while yet in the prime of life. His wife, Rhoda Tower, who was a daughter of Stephen and Anna (Bowker) Tower, was born on November 26, 1795. She bore her husband six children, as follows: Salome, born October 9, 1817; Mariam, born January 5, 1819; Sabrina, born May 29, 1820; Elmina, born October 6, 1822; Warren E., born April 5, 1824; and Lorenzo H. Mrs. Tower died August 23, 1833. Her husband was a Whig in politics, and in religious belief he was a Universalist.

Lorenzo H. Tower, who by the death of both his parents was left an orphan at the early age of four years, went to live with his cousin, Marshall Minor, with whom he remained until fourteen years of age. He then started out to earn his own livelihood, an uphill undertaking for a lad of his years under the most favorable circumstances. He found a place with Ezra Whitman, a farmer of Windsor, Mass. He was kept at farm work until eighteen years of age, when, with forty dollars in money, the amount of his wages during those four years, he went to Pittsfield, Mass. Here he worked for A. L. Clark for some time, and then went to the shops of Huntington, Mass., where for two years he worked on basket and rim wood machinery. In this work he showed much aptitude, and was sent out to set up basket machinery in different places. Finally, having in this way started a basket factory at Oneida, N. Y., for E. J. Hatch, he was given full charge of it, and held that position for the next two years. After a brief visit to his Massachusetts home he returned to Oneida and took charge of a sash, door, and blind factory for eight years. While there he owned two houses, one of which he built himself. He then returned to Cummington; and, after working one year for William Cullen Bryant as carpenter, he took charge of the Bryant property. Under his supervision the house and barn on the proprietor’s birthplace were rebuilt, also the Bryant Library, which was erected in 1872, and the house and barn adjoining, where Mr. Tower lives. He owns a piece of land near by, which he cultivates. He is also the owner of a tenement-house in Holyoke and a house in East Hartford, Conn., and some land in Iowa. As already stated, after he had been in Oneida, N. Y., about two years, he returned to Massachusetts for a brief stay.

On returning to Oneida after his previous visit to his home he took back with him as his wife Miss Vesta A. Bartlett, to whom he had been married November 27, 1856. She was born in Cummington, October 16, 1830, and was a daughter of Ephraim and Betsey (Marshall) Bartlett, the former of whom was an enterprising and progressive farmer of Cummington Hill and a leading man in public affairs. Both were prominent members of the Presbyterian church. But one son of the three children born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Tower is now living. This is Theodore P., whose birth occurred July 18, 1860. He is a civil engineer and has charge of the State road which is now being constructed in the towns of Goshen and Weymouth. The deceased are: Arthur, who was born March 1, 1858, and died October 8, 1859; and Bessie M., whose birth occurred April 9, 1867, and who died on September 22 of that same year.

Mr. Tower is a Republican. He has been active in town affairs, and in 1870 was elected as Selectman. From 1878 to 1880, and from 1882 to 1886, he served as chairman of that board. He acted as Collector three years, and has also acceptably filled the office of Town Treasurer and Highway Surveyor. He is a believer in Spiritualism.