My Genealogy Hound

WARREN E. TOWER, an enterprising and thrifty farmer and one of the oldest and best-known residents of Cummington, Hampshire County, was born here on April 5, 1824. He is a son of Warren and Rhoda (Tower) Tower, and is a representative of the seventh generation in direct descent from John Tower, a native of Hingham, England, who became a resident of Hingham, Mass., in 1637. The Tower genealogy is given in the recently published history of the latter town.

Nathaniel Tower, the paternal grandfather of Warren E., was a native of Hingham, Mass. About 1780 he settled in Cummington, which was his home thereafter; and here he became a successful farmer and large land-owner. He took a prominent part in town affairs, and served as a patriot soldier in the Revolutionary War. His death occurred in 1810, at sixty-five years of age; and his wife, Leah, who was born in Hingham, November 14, 1747, died in January, 1847. They were the parents of four sons and two daughters; namely, Leah, Nathaniel, Peter, Ambrose, Roxy, and Warren.

Warren Tower, son of Nathaniel, was born in Cummington on January 9, 1789, and in his boyhood received only limited educational advantages. He learned the trade of a carpenter, and followed that trade in connection with farming. After living a short time on the place that he first purchased and which is now owned by Mr. Shipman, he sold it, and purchased the B. B. Lyman farm. He had got well started in farming on this place and in his carpenter work when he was taken ill, and died on May 26, 1834, at the age of forty-five years. His wife, Rhoda Tower, was a daughter of Stephen and Anna (Bowker) Tower; and her natal day was November 26, 1795. She bore her husband two sons and four daughters, as follows: Salome, born October 9, 1817; Miriam, born January 5, 1819; Sabrina, born May 29, 1820; Elmina, born October 6, 1822; Warren E.; and Lorenzo H., born August 14, 1830. Mrs. Rhoda Tower died August 23, 1833.

Being left an orphan when but nine years old, Warren E. Tower went to live with Mr. N. Minor on a farm, and remained there for four years. He afterward made his home successively with his brother-in-law, E. T. Bartlett, and with Mr. Randall in the town of Windsor, Mass. While at the latter place, he worked at farming, and also learned the trade of a carpenter; but, having the misfortune to lose one of his eyes by an accident, he was obliged to abandon his cherished plans, and consequently turned his attention from that time forward to agriculture. At twenty-six years of age he bought a farm of one hundred acres, the same now owned by H. Porter; and, after carrying it on for two years, he sold it, and bought another, on which he lived a few years. Selling the second piece of farming property, he purchased the place where he now resides, which contains sixty acres. This estate is known as the Rev. J. Briggs home and farm, having been first occupied by the clergyman of that name, who for forty-six years ministered to the spiritual needs of the people of Cummington as pastor of the Congregational church. One of the first churches and the largest ever erected in the town was built on this farm. The present dwelling-house, although erected over a century ago, is still in good condition. Mr. Tower has, however, made substantial improvements in all the buildings since he came into possession of the place. He keeps a dairy, and is successfully engaged in general farming.

On November 27, 1852, he was joined in matrimony to Miss Agnes L. Lyman, a daughter of Benjamin Lyman. This union was blessed by the birth of a daughter, Edith M., born April 22, 1857, who married Alfred C. Stevens, and died September 11, 1894, leaving two children, Walter L. and Clara L., another child having died in infancy. Mrs. Agnes L. Tower died in the fifty-seventh year of her age. On January 10, 1893, Mr. Tower again married, his second wife being Miss Margaret Jane Lavery, a daughter of John M. and Catherine E. (Hosier) Lavery. Her father was born on the Scottish border-land. After his marriage in England he came with his wife to America, where he followed the vocations of a gardener and a stone mason. Margaret was but three years old at the time of her mother’s death. Having grown to womanhood, she became a trained nurse, and followed this profession with success until her marriage.

Mr. Tower is a Republican in political affiliation and a believer in Spiritualism. He is further represented in this volume by an excellent likeness*, which appears on another page.

*Editor's note: Portrait was included in the original printed book.