St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-26
Charlemagne Tower, the Phil
adelphia Cr@sus, Dies Sud-
denly at Waterville.
Famed as a Lawyer and Pro-
ieetor Of Great Railroad
Enterprises.
Millions Of His Enormous
Wealth Made in Minnesota
Iron Mines.
He Developed the Vermilliop
Range and Sold Out to a
Syndicate.

WATERvILLE, n. Y, July 25.-Char
lemagne Tower of Philadelphia died al
his summer residence in this city this
morning. Mr.. Tower was in his eighty
first year and his death was dine to par
alysis. He leaves four daughters and
a son and an enormous fortune. Mr..
Tower was born in Oneida county, New
York. He graduated from Harvard
university in 1880. He studied law in
New York city where he practised his
profession for some time. Some legal
questions that arose in connection with
his practice, took him to Pennsylvania
in 1916, for the examination of the
title to large bodies of mining
lands, lying chiefly in the county
of Schuykill. Mr.. Tower was the
leading counsel in the famous trial
that arose out of questions relating to
the MunSOn and Williams estate, in
Schuylkill county comprising a large
body of coal lands, the litigation IN re-
gard to which he carried along for more
than twenty-five years. He mastered
and perfected the title to these lands,
which are now the Philadelphia %
Reading Coal and Iron company, and
his footsteps may be traced through
many other
GREAT LEGAL BATTLES
in different counties of Pennsylvania.
He became the owner of large bodies OF
coal land and was director in several
corporations. He was actively inter-
eSted i'm the construction and manage.
ment IN the Northern Pacific railroad,
and a member of its board of direc-
tors for several years. The greatest and
most successful undertaking, perhaps,
of Mr.. Towers long business career was
his development OF the iron resources
of Minnesota, now well known to the
world OF the VermilliOn range. 1t was
about fifteen years ago that Mr.. Tower
learned of the existence of iron ore de,
pOsits near Vermillion lake, body of
water ninety miles northwest of Du-
luth. The country was then wilder
hess, the forest almost without paths
and exploration matter of great diff
Guilty. 1t took an Indian runner four
days to make the journey from Duluth
to the lake, and Mr.. Towers son, who
made the trip to examine the land, was
six days and half III travelling from
one point to the other. An expert was.
however, sept out by Mr.. Tower in 1875
to make a thorough examination, and
the report was so favorable that he de-
termined to buy some land and build
railroad to
BRING THE ORE TO MARKET.
He accordingly purchased about 10000
acres of mineral lands near the lake.
Years were required to get things into
shape, and it was not until 1888 that
MIR. Tower had things in readiness for
the construction of the railroad. He
laid out liue or road from the lake to
point on Lake Superior. about thirty
miles northeast of Duluth, called Two
Harbors. Here Mr.. Tower bought
property, constructed docks and ac-
quired terminal facilities. The mills
were opened, and force of men set at
work digging ore. Meanwhile the rail-
road was being built. All through the
winter of 1884, force of 1,50O men
were laboring in the Minnesota
woods, telling trees, grading and lay
ing ties. The expense was en0r-
nous, but Mr.. Tower was equal to the
demands upon his resources. Hundreds
of thousands of dollars were expended
and not cent was coming in. Through
the spring of 1884 the work was pressed
with yigOr, and late in July the road
was completed. On July 31s 1884. the
first train load of ore passed from Ver-
million lake to Lake Superior, whence
it was shipped on barges to Cleveland.
Before the close of the year 6S.0O0 tons
of ore had been shipped from the mines.
and by 1887 the annual output had been
increased to 100000 tons. On June 5,
1887, Mr.. Tower disposed of his large in
terests i'm the Vermillion range to SYM
dicate, which proposed to extend the
railroad and
DEVELOP THE MINERAL RESOURCES
of the district to the east and northeast
of the property, which he had devel-
oped. On that day, in Philadelphia.
MIR. Tower handed over to the syndicate
the stock and bonds of the Duluth "a
Iron Range railroad and the title deeds
to some 10000 acres of land, and re-
ceived in return certified checks on
banks and financial institutions to the
amount of over S60O0,O00. The syndi-
cate to which Mr.. Tower disposed of his
property was composed of Gen. Fl. HI.
Porter. of the Pullman Palace Car COM
pany; j. G. Morse, of the Union Steel
company, Chicago: Marshall Field, of
Chicago; d. 0. Mills, of New York; J:
ID. Rockefeller, of the Standard Oil
oonopanv and MANY others