Charlemagne Tower Jr. (1848-1923)
Professor "Charlie" Tower, of Philadelphia; U.S. Ambassador to Russia & Germany
He was born in Philadelphia to the "Iron Millionaire". He was educated at a military academy in New Haven, Connecticut, before transferring in 1865 to Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire. He graduated from Harvard University in 1872 and spent the next four years in Europe living between Paris, Madrid, and Tours; travelling in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and Greece while studying history, languages and literature. On returning to the States he was admitted to the bar in 1878 and became involved in his father's railroad and mining businesses, serving for five years (1882 to 1887) as President of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad in Minnesota.
In 1887, he met and married Nellie Smith from California, with whom he had instantly fallen in love with on a cruise to Alaska. They moved to Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, where Tower now devoted himself to the study of history and archaeology. He was appointed a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania of which he was also a trustee; President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; and, authored several books including a biography of the Marquis de Lafayette and an account of the Tower family history. His donation of 2,300 Russian books form the nucleus of Penn's Russian & East European collection. The Towers had five children (including Roderick, the first husband of heiress Flora Payne Whitney) and apart from their home on Rittenhouse Square were briefly the owners of Beach Cliffe in Newport. Returning from Europe they lived between 1315 Locust Street and Waterville, New York. After 1923, his widow moved to Detroit.
In 1897, President McKinley appointed Tower U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary (1897-1899). Two years later, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Russia (1899-1902) and in 1902 Theodore Roosevelt appointed him U.S Ambassador to Germany (1902-1908). Mark Twain was regular guest of the Towers at Vienna and Kaiser Wilhelm II considered Nellie, "the most brilliant hostess on the international scene". However, Tower was lambasted in the American press as a snob: "The Ambassador's manners... are, to put it mildly, queer. All visitors except Royal or noble personages are received by him while he sits in his office chair. A western woman who was treated in this way recently remarked to him that she was learning something every day: she had always supposed a gentleman rose when a lady visited him; she knew better now". On another occasion, while he was happy to introduce Harry Lehr to the Russian Emperor, he would not recognize and refused to do the same for a well-known American philanthropist who had arrived in St. Petersburg with letters of introduction.
In 1887, he met and married Nellie Smith from California, with whom he had instantly fallen in love with on a cruise to Alaska. They moved to Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, where Tower now devoted himself to the study of history and archaeology. He was appointed a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania of which he was also a trustee; President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; and, authored several books including a biography of the Marquis de Lafayette and an account of the Tower family history. His donation of 2,300 Russian books form the nucleus of Penn's Russian & East European collection. The Towers had five children (including Roderick, the first husband of heiress Flora Payne Whitney) and apart from their home on Rittenhouse Square were briefly the owners of Beach Cliffe in Newport. Returning from Europe they lived between 1315 Locust Street and Waterville, New York. After 1923, his widow moved to Detroit.
In 1897, President McKinley appointed Tower U.S. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Austria-Hungary (1897-1899). Two years later, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Russia (1899-1902) and in 1902 Theodore Roosevelt appointed him U.S Ambassador to Germany (1902-1908). Mark Twain was regular guest of the Towers at Vienna and Kaiser Wilhelm II considered Nellie, "the most brilliant hostess on the international scene". However, Tower was lambasted in the American press as a snob: "The Ambassador's manners... are, to put it mildly, queer. All visitors except Royal or noble personages are received by him while he sits in his office chair. A western woman who was treated in this way recently remarked to him that she was learning something every day: she had always supposed a gentleman rose when a lady visited him; she knew better now". On another occasion, while he was happy to introduce Harry Lehr to the Russian Emperor, he would not recognize and refused to do the same for a well-known American philanthropist who had arrived in St. Petersburg with letters of introduction.
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Contributed by Mark Meredith on 20/09/2021 and last updated on 22/09/2021.