Biographical Sketch of Michael TOWERS (1881); Chester County, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Candace Roth 
<clroth1229@earthlink.net>.

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From THE HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, by Futhey and Cope (1881);

Pg. 745

TOWERS, Michael, the oldest of four children--two sons and two daughters--of 
Archibald and Elizabeth Towers, was born Sept. 24, 1800, in Upper Providence 
township, Montgomery Co., PA.  His father, a miller by trade, was a nephew of 
Capt. Robert Towers, the founder of the first factory built at Manayuk, 
Philadelphia co., PA, and chief commissary for the Pennsylvania Committee of 
Safety during the Revolutionary war.  When Michael was seven years of age his 
father died.  Soon after he was sixteen he commenced to learn the carpenter's 
trade, at which he worked for a short time near New Orleans, LA.  Soon after he 
returned to Pennsylvania, and, in February, 1824, purchased his homestead farm 
in East Vincent township, this county.  About 1827 he began to work for the 
Schuylkill Navigation Company.
By his industry and ability he won the confidence of its officers, and soon 
became prominent as a contractor and adviser in all their improvements.  In the 
years 1841-43 he was engaged in the reconstruction of the Fairmount dam, 
Philadelphia,--a work undertaken by himself and Frederick Erdman,a master-
builder of considerable note in his day.  After the completion of this work he 
seems to have retired to his extensive farm, where he was engaged in 
agricultural pursuits until 1845, when he returned to the canal to aid in its 
enlargement, in which he took an active part,--among other improvements building 
the Vincent dam.  In 1848 he was engaged as a contractor in the building of dams 
of cemented masonry on the James River in Virginia, for the James River and 
Kanawha Navigation company,--works of very considerable magnitude and 
importance, to the execution of which he brought all the knowledge and 
experience which he in so eminent a degree possessed.

He was the first to introduce the plan of building dams on rock foundations; 
those which before were built on the bed of the river on sand and gravel only 
stood eight or ten years, while his have been standing half a century and are 
perfect yet.  In his connections with many of the most important works of the 
country he stood in the foremost rank as a contractor and adviser.

He married, Jan. 6, 1824, Rebecca, daughter of James and Hannah Brook, of
Lawrenceville.*  He had eleven children, of whom two sons and five daughters are 
living, as is also his wife.  He celebrated his golden wedding Jan. 6, 1874, in 
the presence of a large number of his old friends and relatives.  He died Nov. 
13, 1880.

He was a man of unflinching integrity, generous hospitality, and left the 
impress of a long and busy life in the works of his creation.

* James Brook owned and operated a gun manufactory at that village, and made 
muskets for the United States in the war of 1812.  He was a member of the State 
Legislature when it met at Lancaster, and his son, Nathaniel Brook, was 
afterwards a State senator.