![CTower](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/CTower.jpg)
Charlemagne Tower Jr. (April 17, 1848February 24, 1923) was an American businessman, scholar, and diplomat.
Biography
Charlemagne Tower was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, on April 17, 1848 to
Charlemagne Tower Sr. and Amelia Malvina (Bartle) Tower. He was the first of seven children and his sister,
Henrietta Henrietta may refer to:
* Henrietta (given name), a feminine given name, derived from the male name Henry
Places
* Henrietta Island in the Arctic Ocean
* Henrietta, Mauritius
* Henrietta, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
United States
* Henrie ...
, was the last.
He spent his childhood in
Orwigsburg and
Pottsville, Pennsylvania
Pottsville is the county seat of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,346 at the 2020 census, and is the principal city of the Pottsville, PA Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies along the west bank of th ...
. In 1862 he entered a
military academy
A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...
in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
and transferred in 1865 to
Phillips Exeter Academy in
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. ...
.
[The National Cyclopedia of American Biography Vol. 5, 1894, Pg. 190-191.] Tower entered
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1868 and graduated in 1872.
After graduating from Harvard, Tower returned to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
where he lived and traveled for four years. Tower studied history, languages and literature. Initially he lived in the cities of
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...
. In 1874 he traveled to
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and later to
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
,
Sweden,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, and
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
.
[
In July 1876 Tower returned to the United States and was admitted to the bar in 1878, later doing business in the mining and railroad sectors. He moved to ]Duluth, Minnesota
, settlement_type = City
, nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City
, motto =
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...
in 1882 when he began serving as president of the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad. In 1887 he returned to Philadelphia.[
In 1891 he began to devote himself exclusively to history and archaeology, and became a professor in the ]University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
. He served as Minister to Austria-Hungary (1897–1899) for President William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...
before being transferred to Russia as Ambassador (1899–1902). Following his post in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, he served as Ambassador to Germany from December 1902 to June 1908 under President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
. He was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, donating a large collection of 2,300 Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
books to the library, which forms the nucleus of Penn's Russian and East European collection.
Death
In 1923 Tower and his wife were living in the Green Hill Farms Hotel in Overbrook, outside of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
. On February 9, 1923 he entered the Pennsylvania Hospital
Pennsylvania Hospital is a private, non-profit, 515-bed teaching hospital located in Center City Philadelphia and is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Founded on May 11, 1751, by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond, Pennsyl ...
in Philadelphia. Charlemagne Tower Jr. died February 24, 1923. The cause of death was pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
. He was buried in Waterville Cemetery in Waterville, NY.[ ]
Works
*
French translation
*Diary of a European Trip. Princeton University. (Diary written by Tower when he was an attaché to the American Legation in Madrid, dated 1872-1873).
Further reading
*Brunet, Helen Tower. Nellie and Charlie: A Family Memoir of the Gilded Age. New York: iUniverse, 2005.
*Historical Society of Pennsylvania. "Proceedings at the dinner given by the Historical society of Pennsylvania to Hon. Charlemagne Tower, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary. April twenty-ninth, 1897." Philadelphia: E. Stern & Co. 1897.
References
''This article integrates text in the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
taken from the following two sources:''
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tower, Charlemange Jr.
1848 births
1923 deaths
Ambassadors of the United States to Austria
Ambassadors of the United States to Germany
Ambassadors of the United States to Russia
Harvard University alumni
Businesspeople from Philadelphia
Deaths from pneumonia in Pennsylvania
Burials in New York (state)
19th-century American diplomats
20th-century American diplomats