Charlemagne Tower Jr. (1848-1923)

Portrait from "The World's Work", Nov. 1902-April 1903.

  Any person (public official or otherwise) that shares a name with the famed Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne is worthy of more than just a passing glance, and Charlemagne Tower Jr., the scion of a wealthy Pennsylvania family, is certainly a man worth profiling. Well educated, well-to-do, and well connected, Tower was attached to the University of Pennsylvania when he first entered the diplomatic service, being named by President McKinley as U.S. Minister to Austria-Hungary. A stint as Minister to Russia followed that post and lastly held the ambassadorship to Germany, being appointed by President Roosevelt. A popular man in his day, Tower could count Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany as a personal friend and is a far from forgotten historical figure, with an abundance of information available on his life online and elsewhere.

  The son of Charlemagne Tower Sr. (1809-1889) and the former Amelia Marvin Bartle, Charlemagne Tower Jr. was born in Philadelphia on April 17, 1848. A distinguished figure in his own right, Charlemagne Tower Sr. was a lawyer and businessman who accumulated a vast fortune through mining and railroad enterprises in both Pennsylvania and Minnesota and was later a member of the board of overseers for Harvard University. So prominent was Tower that in the years before his death three towns were named for him, in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Dakota.

  As the son of one of America's leading financiers, Charlemagne Tower Jr. had the benefit of an excellent education, first attending schools local to Philadelphia, and, later, a military academy in New Haven, Connecticut. Following enrollment at the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, Tower began study at Harvard University, graduating in 1872. Tower was afforded the luxury of continuing his education in Europe, and from 1872-76 traveled and studied foreign languages, history, and literature. From 1872-73 he "attended lectures at the university" in Madrid and gained his first taste of diplomatic service in 1873 when, at the request of then U.S. Minister to Spain Daniel Sickles, he accepted the post of attache on the staff of the American legation in Madrid. Tower would later leave Spain to spend time in Paris and Tours, France, and in 1874 made a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, where he undertook further study. Tower would later visit Denmark, Sweden, and Russia in 1875, and in the winter of that year resided in Egypt. In his final year abroad, Tower ventured out on horseback, traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus, Syria before returning to the United States in July 1876.

From the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume 5, 1894.

  Upon his return to the United States, Charlemagne Tower Jr. began law studies in Philadelphia under the tutelage of leading trial attorney William Henry Rawle (1823-1889), and also attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. Admitted to the bar in 1878, Tower would put a potentially lucrative career in law on hold in 1882 to remove to Minnesota, where, at the behest of his father, he took on the post of president of the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad Company. In connection with his father's friend, George C. Stone, Tower saw Minnesota's vast iron deposits opened to begin a substantial new industry in the vicinity and became a founding organizer of the Minnesota Iron Company, of which he would be a managing director.

  Tower resided in Minnesota until 1887, and after his return to Philadelphia continued success in business, taking on the vice presidency of the Finance Company of Philadelphia. He later held that company's presidency and, following a trip to California, met and later married Oakland native Helen "Nellie" Smith (1858-1931) in February 1888. The couple would have five children, Charlemagne III (1889-1964), Geoffrey (1890-1957), Roderick (1892-1961), Helen (1894-1964), and Gertrude (1895-1916). With the death of his father in 1889 Tower inherited a sizeable portion of the former's wealth, and in the years following Charlemagne Sr.'s death Tower devoted himself to scholarly pursuits and for several months in 1891 vacationed in Europe.

From the New York Herald, March 27, 1897.

  With a keen interest in history and his wide educational attainment, Tower began work on his first book in the early 1890s, entitled "The Marquis de Lafayette in the American Revolution". Published in two volumes in 1895, the book was later remarked as having "taken high rank as a historical work and whose literary merit was at once conceded." A trustee of the University of Pennsylvania as well as a member of the Pennsylvania State Historical Society, Tower further aided his alma mater in the early 1890s when he became affiliated with the University's Department of Archaeology and Paleontology. As president of that department's board of managers, Tower was also a member of the department committees on Asia and General Ethnology, Babylonian, Building, Casts, Egyptian and Mediterranean, Glyptology, and the Museum.

  Not yet fifty years old in 1897, Charlemagne Tower Jr. could boast of a varied and colorful life, but other than his brief service as an attache in Madrid had yet to fully immerse himself in American diplomatic affairs. That changed in the spring of 1897 when recently inaugurated President William McKinley wished to "recognize the splendid service of the Republican party in the Keystone State", and vowed to name a Pennsylvanian to a diplomatic post. With the backing of U.S. Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania, Charlemagne Tower Jr. was the man selected. Recognized for his familiarity with languages, studiousness, and character, Tower was given the diplomatic plum of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary. Residing in Vienna with his wife and children, Tower's time in Austria saw he and his family occupy a Grand Duke's palace in the city. His tenure in Austria extended until January 1899 when President McKinley designated him as Minister to Russia, and he arrived at St. Petersburg several weeks later.

From the El Paso Daily Herald, January 16, 1899.

  Tower's ascension to the ambassadorship to Russia came at an interesting time in American-Russian relations, with the Bering Sea claims still a hot button issue. These claims extended from the seizure of three American whaling ships by Czarist vessels off the coast of Siberia in 1892. One of these ships, the Cape Horn Pigeon, was then "forcibly destrained" and taken to Vladivostok, where it remained impounded until the conclusion of the whaling season. After several years of claims between the two nations, Russia agreed to an arbitration, with the end goal being a settlement for the seizure of the American ships. A Dutch jurist, Dr. Tobias M.C. Asser, was chosen to arbitrate the proceedings, which came as a relief to Tower, who remarked:

"The relations between Russia and the United States were never more close or friendly than to-day. The only difference existing between the two nations is now sure of settlement on lines similar to the Venezuela arbitration. I will return to St. Petersburg on Saturday and the finishing touches will then be put upon the agreement."

  Following President McKinley's assassination in 1901 Charlemagne Tower concluded his service in Russia and in 1902 was designated as U.S. Ambassador to Germany by President Roosevelt. He officially entered into his duties in December of that year and his six-year stay in that country saw both he and his wife become popular members of German society. Kaiser Wilhelm II would also take a shine to the new American ambassador, and frequently invited Tower to sit next to him at state functions and dinners. In addition to favor from the Kaiser, Tower and his family lived in opulence during their residence in Berlin, with the Philadelphia Inquirer noting:

"At an expense far more lavish than any previous representative of the United States at the German court ever dreamed of, he lived in a magnificent palace, entertaining on a scale of unequaled splendor."

    To the dismay of the Kaiser, Charlemagne Tower Jr. announced his resignation as Ambassador in 1908 and in June of that year was feted with a lavish farewell dinner in Potsdam. After their return to Philadelphia, Tower and his wife resided in a thirty-nine room brownstone home complete with footmen and in the succeeding years entertained lavishly, having brought back with them "sumptuous and formal habits" from the courts of Europe. Tragedy would strike the Tower family in 1916 with the death of their twenty-year-old daughter Gertrude in a car accident, and shortly thereafter left their Philadelphia home. 

  Tower's final years were spent residing at the Green Hill Farms hotel in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia, and in early February 1923 was, due to ill health, removed to the Pennsylvania Hospital in that city. He died there on February 24, aged 74, and was thereafter interred at the Waterville Cemetery in Waterville, Oneida County, New York. This cemetery is also the burial location of Charlemagne Tower Sr. and his wife, as well as the former's father and mother. In addition to those burials, Tower's widow Helen, son Geoffrey and daughter Gertrude are interred here.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 1923.