History of the Tower Family
By William Ray Tower
The Tower family came to America from England in 1637, 17 years after the Pilgrims landed in the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock, in what is now the State of Massachusetts. The family was Puritan of the land owning Gentry and Middle class shop owners of England.
The time in English History was the reign of Charles the First and second of the Stuart line of Kings of Scotland. All of the Stuart Kings were originally Catholics even though they had to publicly renounce Catholicism to become Kings in Protest England, they always leaned t0word the Catholic Church even though they were members of the Anglican or Episcopalian Church. Archbishop Laud was the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church in 1637. With the ear of the king, he kept trying to purge the Protestant schism called Puritans from the Anglican Church.
The time in World History was the time of the Protestant Reformation when England and Germany were beginning to break away from the Catholic Church that had dominated both the Church and State all through History. Germany under Martin Luther had broken away from Catholicism first and years of bloody warfare between Catholics and Protestants followed because the Church and State were together at that time.
The Tudor kings, in the person of Henry the Eight, too England out of the Catholic Church because the Pope would not grant Henry the Eight a divorce from Catholic Catherine, who could not bear him a son, so that he could marry Ann Boelyn, the Protestant Lady in waiting. England and the Catholic Nations of Spain and France, particularly, had been at war ever since this happened. Inside England, there was terrible persecution of Catholics during both Henry the Eight's time and the time of Elizabeth, his daughter. Both tried to run the Catholics out of England. When Elizabeth died childless, the closest of kin of the Tudors was invited to take the English Throne. The closest of kin of the Tudors was Mary Stuart's Children of Scotland. Mary had been Queen of Scotland and had married the King of France who was Catholic. This accounts for the Catholic leanings of the Stuart Kings. When James the First died, his son Charles the First came to the Throne of England and was on the Throne when the Tower family decided to leave England and come to America.
During the time of Charles the First, Catholics and Protestants in England had just learned to live together well enough to keep from killing each other, when a group of dissenters known as Puritans decided that the Protestant reformation in England hadn't bone far enough. The Puritans were converts of John Calvin and believed that the Bible was the only true guide for a Christian, and that every man had the right to read and interpret it the way his conscience led him. They believed that a man was saved by faith in God's grace by believing and accepting Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Therefore no man or church could dictate to the individual what he should believe or do, that was personal matter between the person and God. Now this doctrine was exactly contrary to the views of Catholicism, which taught that the Church had the right to interpret the scriptures and to order and direct the lives of its members. Religion, in the Catholic viewpoint, was not to be a personal thing but was to be ordered and directed by the Church. The services of the Church were to be filled with ceremony; the seven sacraments were to be celebrated, and the Episcopacy was to control the Church, and the Church was to control the people.
Many of these ideas were carried over into the Anglican Church and were contained in the "Book of Common Prayers". Namely the Celebration of the Sacraments, the form of Worship, and the rule of the Episcopacy were brought over from the Catholic Church to the Anglican Church. The Puritans wanted to get rid of these things or to purify the English Church of its Romanist ways. Their Archbishop, Laud, and Charles the First were determined that this was not going to happen. They decided to harry the Puritans out of England.
The first group left England 1620 in the Mayflower, under Johnathan Winthrop and landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts and founded the second English Colony in America, 13 years after Jamestown, Virginia had been settled. Their migration did not stop the persecution in England and it was fight to the death between Charles the First and Archbishop Laud and their forces, and the House of Commons of the English Parliament, who were largely Puritans.
During the 1630's, whole towns in England emigrated to 'America due to persecution and settled in Massachusetts. The Tower family lived in Hingham, England and it is a shire town of Norwich in the County of Norfolk. The town of Hingham is between ten and fifteen miles southwest of Norwich, England.
Hingham, Mass is about fifteen miles southeast of Boston, Mass. It is mad of Hingham, West Hingham and Hingham Center. The first permanent settlement was made in 1633 and was called Bear Cove. Hingham, Mass. is a manufacturing center for Awnings, cordage, woodenware, toys, bootheels, furniture, leatherette upholster. (From an old encyclopedia)
Hingham was also the home of Samuel and Benjamin Lincoln. Samuel was the ancestor of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States. It was also the home of James Hall, a famous early day geologist who became State Geologist of New York State.
The first Tower, John Tower, son of Robert Tower and Dorithe Damon, came to Hingham, Mass. In 1637, in the company of Samuel Lincoln. John Tower married Margaret Ibrook, daughter of Richard Ibrook who also came from Norfolk County, England in 1638, after receiving a grant of land in Hingham Township in 1637. To this union was born ten children:
1-John Tower bapt December 13, 1639, Hingham, Mass. Married Sarah Hardin May 14, 1669
2-Johnathan Tower bapt August 1, 1641, Hingham, Mass died unmarried.
3-Ibrook Tower bapt February 7, 1643, Hingham, Mass married Margaret Hardin, April 24, 1668
4-Jeremiah Tower bapt March 9, 1645, Hingham, Mass. Married Elizabeth Rowland, November? 1670
5-Elizabeth Tower bapt October 9, 1648, Hingham, Mass. Married William Roberts, October 9, 1667, Boston, Mass.
6-Sarah Tower bapt July 11, 1650, Hingham, Mass. Married 1-Thomas Curtiss, 2-?
7-Hannah Tower bapt July 17, 1652, Hingham, Mass married 1-Joseph Colwel, 2-David Whipple
8-Benjamin Tower bapt November 5, 1654-died March 24, 1721 married Deborah Garnet, dau. Of John and Mary Garnet, born July 5, 1757 died 1728-9
9-Jemima Tower bapt. April 25, 1660, Hingham, Mass. Married Thomas Gardner
10-Samuel Tower bapt January 26, 1661-2 Hingham, Mass married Silence Damon of Scituate, December 13, 1683.
The sons of John Tower and Margaret Ibrook and the daughter migrated to various parts of the United States. Our particular line goes back to Samuel, the tenth child and the youngest son of the original Tower in America, John Tower. We know very little about the fourth, fifth and sixth generation in the Samuel line. We do know the Samuel that Samuel had a son Samuel, and he had a son Matthew and he had a son Matthew. The second Matthew had a son Matthew and these were our ancestors. These are the names in our direct line;
1st generation-Robert Tower-lived and died in England
2nd generation-John Tower migrated to America
3ed generation-Samuel Tower-tenth child of John who emigrated.
4th generation-Samuel Tower Jr. son of Samuel the First
5th generation-Matthew Tower-son of Samuel Jr.
6th generation-Matthew Tower, son of Matthew the First
7thgeneration-Matthew Tower, son of Matthew Tower the second
Born January 5, 1769-died September 21, 1845 married Abigail Bates-born May 1, 1774-died May 1833
8th generation-Johnathan Warren Tower-son of Matthew 3rd born December 8, 1809-died November 26, 1890
9th generation-Abraham Bates Tower-son of Johnathan Warren born October 16, 1837 died
10th generation Rueben Theadore Tower, son of Abraham Bates Born May 13, 1876-died June 14, 1954 married Pearl Heudonia McElvany December 24 1905
11th generation-Wm. Ray Tower- son of Rueben Theadore Tower born March 29, 1910 (died 10-30-1992 82 yrs. Of heart failure)
12th generation-
1-Teddy Rogers Tower born August 8, 1931 married Juanita Absher (Ted died August 5, 1994 in Reno Nevada)
2-Joan Ray Tower- married Wayne Eldon Anderson
3-William Michael Tower married 1st Ann Helton 2nd Paula Denson
4-Mary Patricia Tower married Frank C. Ruble
5-Robert Jack Tower
13th generation
Ted's Children
1-Paula Denise Tower
2-Virginia Marie Tower
3-Lynn Beatrice Tower
4-Roger Ray Tower-
5-Samuel Theadore
Joan's children
1-Lucinda Lea Anderson
2-David Wayne Anderson born April 29, 1964
3-Robert Paul Eldon Anderson
4-Ruth Renee Anderson born January 10, 1972(died 1974)
Mikes children
1-Matthew Loyd Tower
2-Heather Michelle Tower
Pats child
1-Charles Wesley Ruble
Bob never married.
The Samuel line for some reason that we do not know left Hingham Mass and migrated to Indiana, and settled just across the line from Kentucky on the Ohio River in Crawford County. Probably, they simply went West with that great group of pioneers that poured into the Northwest Territory following the French and Indian War in America.
We have pretty clear facts from the third generation of the Samuel Tower line, which is the 6th child generation from the original John Tower in America. The 5th generation was Matthew Tower, son of Samuel Jr., son of Samuel 1st, son of John, son of Robert. The 6th generation was Matthew JR., so of Matthew 1st.
Matthew Tower 3rd was born in 1769 and married Abigail Bates who was born in 1774. To this generation was born eleven children, all in Indiana. This would be the 7th generation;
1-Lydia Tower born July 8, 1792
2-Matthew Tower 4th born November 13, 1793
3-Cotton Tower born March 24, 1795
4-Abraham Bates Tower born April 27, 1798(not our line)
5-Sarah Jane Tower born February 8, 1800
6-Hull D. Tower born February 28, 1802
7-Abigail Tower (West) born May 23 1806
8-Mortimer Tower born March 16, 1808
9-Johnathan Tower born December 8, 1809(our line)
10-Nehemiah Tower born December 17, 1814
11-Harriet Nevel Tower born September 21, 1821
My Great Grandfather was Johnathan Warren Tower, the 9th child of this generation of the Tower Family in America. He married Sarah Vest Monroe, who born July 10, 1811 and was a relative of President Monroe the 5th president of the United States. To this union was born eleven children.;
1-Matthew Tower born March 25, 1832
2-Louisa Caroline Tower (Bates) born June 22, 1834
3-Isabel Tower born October 18 1836
4-Abraham Bates Tower born October 16, 1837(My Grandfather)
5-Rosana Casida born May 10, 1840(m. a Christ)
6-Harriet Nevel Tower born November 16, 1842(died age 1)
7-Charlotte Temple Tower born September 3, 1843(M. Williams)
8-James Mortimer Tower born June 23, 1844
9-Johnathan Warren Tower born August 22, 1848
10-Sarah Jane Tower born September 17, 1853(m. Manger)
11-Levi Gifford Tower born September 27, 1856
My Grandfather was in this generation. He was the 4th child, Abraham Bates Tower who was born Oct. 16, 1837 in Crawford Co. Ind. He died February 8, 1930 in Tyro, Kansas at age 92 yrs-3months-22 days. He is buried in Robbins Cemetery west of Coffeeville, Kansas. He married Nancy Angleine Long October 28, 1858. She was born May 2, 1840. Two children were born to them before the Civil War. They were Laura A. Tower (Taylor) born September 29, 1859, Crawford County, Ind. And Erastus Laban Tower, born August 7, 1861, Crawford County, Ind.
The Civil War came along and Grandpa fought with the Indiana Volunteers, Company G 93. It was commanded by Capt. Jerome Spillman and Col.D.C. Thomas. He volunteered August 28, 1862 for a 3-year term.
Grandpa's first action was at Pea Ridge or Elkhorn Tavern in 1862. John R. Curtiss was given command of the Union forces in Southwest Missouri of which the Indiana Volunteers we a part. He moved from Rolla, Missouri and invaded northern Arkansas. He met Sterling Price, Carl Van Doren, Ben McCulloch, and Albert Pike at Pea Ridge or Elkhorn Tavern, also the Indiana home guard under Stand Watie from Indian Territory.
The Confederates were defeated in the battle. Ben McCulloch of the Texas volunteers was killed. Sterling Price withdrew his Confederate forces south toward Louisiana and Curtiss was left with the northern third of Arkansas as well as all Missouri. Curtiss pushed on across Arkansas taking Little Rock and moving on to join Grand and Farrigut at Memphis. The strategy was to cut the Confederacy in two by taking the Mississippi River. By doing this, Ark., Texas, and parts of Louisiana and Miss. would be cut off from the Eastern Confederacy, and could be more easily defeated. Curtiss joined Grant and Farrigut at Memphis and after that city had fallen, Curtiss was left in charge of the 'Army in Arkansas and Missouri.
Early in June 1863 Sherman sent a strong Calvary force under Maj. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgiss, backed up by Infantry, from Memphis down into Mississippi in hope that Forrest could be forced into a loosing battle. It did not work as hoped. Forrest ambushed Sturgiss at Brice's Cross Roads near Guntown, Mississippi on June 10th and routed him. Grandpa was captured here and spent the rest of the war in Andersonville prison in Georgia. He was mustered out of the service in 1865. Capt. E.M.Marybell 8th Ohio Inf. Signed his discharge papers. He went back to Indiana and from there to Laclede in Linn Co., Mo.
Viola Matilda Tower (Mrs. S.N. McGee) was born February 3, 1873. Zacheus Tower was born March 2, 1875 and died that same year. Rueben Theadore Tower, my father, was born May 13, 1876 in Boone County, Arkansas in a log cabin at the foot of Gaither Mountain on the eastern side. Melissa Angeline Tower was born November 14, 1878 (Mrs. Henry Fiscus) also in Arkansas. Emma Lillian Tower was born September 26, 1881.
It is interesting to note that Grandpa's move to Arkansas put him within 50 miles of Pea Ridge where he first saw action in the Civil War. It was his love of this country plus free land offered to the soldiers that brought him back south.
Grandpa liked Kansas. It fit his Union background and had a climate similar4 to the one he was used to. So he moved to a farm on Onion Creek between Coffeeville and Tyro, Kan. Where all of the younger children grew up. One of their neighbors on Onion Creek was the Dalton's. Dad grew up and played with Bob, Grat, and Bill Dalton when they were in their teens. He liked them but said they were always a bit rough and wild. The Dalton's later became the infamous Dalton Outlaw gang.
Aunt Tilda (Viola Matilda) married Sam McGee in Tyro, Kansas, Jan. 23, 1895. They lived there till he died at a ripe old age. They raised their children there and Aunt Tilda spent her reclining years with her children there.
Uncle Bill (Wm. Warren) Tower married Margaret Peller at Tyro settled there, raised his family, died and is buried there in the Tyro Cemetery.
Aunt Alice (Sarah Alice Tower) married Will Newton in Tyro but moved with him to Morgan, Texas where they lived, raised their family and died. Their graves are in Morgan, Texas and their children live in and around Morgan.
Aunt Lissy (Melissa Angeline) married Henry Fiscus in Tyro, Kansas and moved to Oklahoma where they raised their family, lived and died. Aunt Lissy is buried at Sparks, Oklahoma, where she lived with her son after Uncle Henry died.
Grandpa was in and out of Tyro, Kansas for the rest of his life but always called Tyro home. He and Grandma Tower along with Uncle Bill and Aunt Tilda are buried in the Tyro, Kansas cemetery.
Rueben Theadore Tower, my dad, did a little bit of everything. He worked on farms, with a threshing crew, picked cotton and drove cattle. He was back and forth across Oklahoma when it was Indian Reservation, going from Kansas to Texas. He had some hair raising experiences with horse thieves, outlaws and was almost massacred by the Cheyenne Indians as he crossed the Cheyenne Arapaho Reservation near Cloud Chief during one of their many uprisings, after the Northern Cheyenne were moved there from Wyoming. Dad finally came to Prague, Oklahoma in Lincoln County to pick cotton for a homesteader by the name of Hotelling and met my mother, Pearl Heudonia McElvany who had moved with her people from Mississippi to Ft. Worth, Texas and Lillian Texas and then to Oklahoma in 1898. They were married December 24, 1905 at Prague just three years after that town in southwest Lincoln County had been started by the Ft. Smith and Western Railroad in the old Sac and Fox Indian Reservation. The Sac and Fox Strip was the second land opening in Oklahoma, opening two years after the unassigned lands or old Oklahoma had been opened to white settlement. In fact it was to get cheap land that the McElvany's came from Texas to Oklahoma. They didn't run in the race but did buy a farm from those who did make the race.
Dad didn't run in the race either. He was too young at the time, being only 15 years old. He bought a place from Mr. Hartwell who had run in the race and staked a claim. After he and mother were married, Dad spent the rest of his life on this farm which was three miles east and a third mile and one mile north of Prague, Oklahoma.
I, William Ray Tower, was born on this farm in 1910 in a one-room log cabin on the North or bottom eighty acres of Dad's one hundred and sixty-acre farm. Nothing remains of this cabin today and one would have to know exactly where it was to find it.
I attended Rocky Point Grade School and graduated from the eight grade there in a two-room country school. I attended Prague High School from 1923 to 1927. The High School was on the East Side of Prague by the old water tower. I graduated from High School in 1927 and went on the farm with Dad for three years.
Velma Ann Rogers and I were married in 1930 and I moved to a farm by myself, one mile south of the old home place and lived there for two years. During these two year I became a minister in the Methodist Protestant Church before Methodist Union took place. In 1936, this union united the Methodist Episcopal Church North and South and the Methodist Protest Church. Another Methodist Union took place in 1968 with the United Brethren and all four groups are together today as the United Methodist Church.
I was a delegate from the old Ft. Smith-Oklahoma Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church to the uniting conference in Asheville, North Carolina. I held pastorates at Massard, Arkansas, a suburb of Ft. Smith, Prague, Oklahoma, Coyle Agra and Shamrock, Oklahoma. Massard and Prague were in the Methodist Protestant Church and Agra, Coyle and Shamrock were in the Methodist Church.
I decided to go to College in 1937 and did with a wife and two children, Ted and Joan. We moved to Stillwater and I pastored the Agra-Coyle circuit. My wife ran a café and cooked at a Dormitory. I finished my B.S. degree in 1941. I had always felt that my greatest talent was in working with boys, so I became a teacher and coach of boy's athletics and continued to preach at Coyle and Agra.
My first teaching job was in Prague High School where I taught and coached from 1941 to 1945, during World War II. Since I was minister, The Prague Draft Board would not draft me for military service, saying that I was needed worse in the school than in the army. I volunteered as a Chaplin, sent to Washington D.C. to be inducted and got turned down on my physical because of Asthma. I did not serve in World War II because of this but continued to teach and coach. I helped the war effort by working in the Douglas Aircraft Manufacturing Co. in Oklahoma City for three summers, working there three months in each stretch.
My teaching career has been at the following places;
1-Prague, Okla. High School-teacher and Coach 1941-45
2-Cleveland, Okla. Teacher and Coach 1945-48
3-Maud, Okla. Teacher and Coach 1948-49
4-Comanche, Okla. Principal, Coach and Counselor 1949-54
5-Ensign, Kan. Supt., Coach and Counselor 1954-59
6-Pernell, Okla. Teacher, Coach and Counselor 1959-62
7-Minco, Okla. Teacher and Coach 1962-63
8-Elmore City, Okla. Teacher and coach 1963-66
9-Pernell, Okla.-Teacher, Coach, Counselor 1966-1974
I received my M.A. degree in 1948 in History and the equivalent of a M.Ed. in 1954 in Educational Administration. I received by B.S. and M.A. from Oklahoma State University and M.Ed. from the University of Oklahoma, Norman.
I have spent my life in the school business and have been everything from a bus driver to Supt. of Schools and have enjoyed every minute of it. I quit preaching in 1949 when we moved to Comanche. I have never had it in for the Church or felt that I did wrong in quitting. I simply felt that I could do more good and reach more people through the public schools than I could through the Church and for this reason I cast my lot with the. I have never been ashamed of being a minister or a Christian, nor have I felt guilty over leaving the ministry. It was simply that I felt my talents were greater as a teacher than as a preacher.
Velma Rogers (Tower) was born September 23, 1910 in Pottawatomie County, Belmont, Oklahoma. She attended grade school at Rocky Point, Garden Grove, Shawnee, Okla. and Treece, Kansas. All one and two room schools except Shawnee. Her mother and father died when she was six years old. She lived with her Grandmother Adams and Uncle Jacob Allen Adams till she was thirteen, then another uncle, Will Adams and his wife Ida raised her till she was twenty when we got marred. Will Adams was a lead and zinc miner and lived between Quapaw and Picher, Oklahoma. Velma attended high school in Quapaw. From her twentieth birthday on, our history has been the same. So what I have accounted that I did, Velma did also except the teaching and coaching and she helped me in that.
Our oldest child was Teddy Rogers Tower, born August 8, 1931 at my parent's home northeast of Prague. He attended grade school at Stillwater through the 4th grade, Prague grade through the 8th grade, high school at Cleveland three years and graduated from Maud High School in 1948. Ted went into the Service in 1949 and served three years in the Air Force where he was a radio and radar operator. He was in the service during the Korean War in the 1950-52. Ted worked in an airplane factory in Wichita, Kansas; worked for Mike Michelson in contract housing construction in Salina, Kan. While at Salina, Ted attended his first two years of College at Kansas Weselyan University.
After two years, he taught for me at Ensign, Kansas on a "Fifty hour certificate' which was legal at that time. He finished College, receiving a B.A. degree in Speech and Psychology from Kansas State Teachers College at Emporia, Kansas. Ted then became a teacher at Larned, Kansas where he taught History and Speech for three years, moving from there to Great Bend, Kansas where he taught one year in Special Education. He moved from there to Las Vegas, Nevada and was the Special Education Teacher for three years at Rancho, High. He received a scholarship to come to the University of Oklahoma to finish his Masters in Special Education. He did this and stayed to get his PHD in Special Education, coming out of O.U. with his degree in Psychology and Special Education, he went to the University of South Dakota to become head of Special Education there. After two years at South Dakota, the job at the University of Nevada at Reno opened and he became head of the Special Education Department a Nevada University, Reno Branch, where he is today.
Ted and Nita have five children;
1-Paula Denise Tower born Salina Kansas
2-Virginia Marie Tower born Salina Kansas
3-Lynn Beatrice Tower born Las Vegas Nev.
4-Roger Ray Tower born Las Vegas, Nev.
5-Samuel Theadore Tower born Reno, Nev.
Joan Ray Tower was born Prague, Oklahoma. She married Wayne Eldon Anderson of Bucklin, Kan. They were wed in Ensign, Kansas. Joan attended Prague, Cleveland, Maud and Comanche grade schools and Comanche High School where she graduated as the Co-valedictorian of her class in 1954. She attended the University of Oklahoma that summer and Dodge City Jr. College the first semester of 1955 where she met Wayne and married. Wayne was in the Service in the Air Force with the military police, stationed in Guam. Joan went with him and they stayed on Guam the first year of their marriage. When Wayne came out of the service, he was interested in police work and went to the University of Michigan on the G.I. Bill to study Police Administration.
He became a Police Officer at Webberville Michigan. They adopted Lucinda Lea Anderson while a Michigan University. She was born Michigan. They adopted another child, David Wayne Anderson while at Webberville. He was born April 22, 1965. Wayne took a job at Kansas City moved back to Bucklin, then Dodge where he became a printer for over a year. He then went back to Lansing Michigan and worked for his old boss from Webberville in Managing the laundry department of the Lansing Hospital. Not liking this type of work, Wayne moved to California where he graduated from Fullerton Jr. College in Business Law. He is now working toward his Law Degree.
Robert Paul Eldon Anderson was born August 9, 1967 at Fullerton, Calif. Ruth Renee Anderson was born January 10, 1972, Fullerton, Calif. She died March 30, 1974.
William Michael Tower was born at Prague, Oklahoma. He attended Maud and Comanche grade schools. He attended Ensign High School and Pernell High School graduating from Pernell in 1960. He attended Cameron Jr. College at Lawton, joined the National Guard, and got his basic training at Ft. Chaffe, Arkansas and the rest of his training at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. After his service in the Guards, Mike attended South Eastern College at Durant, Oklahoma where he graduated with a degree in Sociology and Geography in 1964. He met and married Ann Helton. While there a son was born to them Matthew Loyd Tower.
Mike disliked the Arizona Desert and returned to Oklahoma in 1967 and went to work for the State Welfare Department I Hugo, Oklahoma. He transferred to Oklahoma City in 1969 and became a Counselor for the Children's Court.
After Mike and Ann moved to Oklahoma City, They adopted a cute little Indian girl, Heather Michelle Tower.
Mary Patricia Tower was born Prague, Okla. She attended Comanche, Ensign Grade schools and Pernell High School. She graduated from Pernell in 1962. Pat went to South Eastern College in Durant Okla. And graduated in 1966 with a degree in P.E. and Health. She obtained a teaching position in Pleasant Hill, Illinois and taught girls PE for two years. She met and married Frank C. Ruble and moved with him to Pittsfield, Illinois where they still live. After their marriage, she obtained a teaching position at Barry where she still teaches. (I also taught a year at North Greene in White Hall, IL. Before I went to Barry.)
They have one son Charles Wesley Ruble, born. Frank has two children by a former marriage, James Lee and Lora Lee Ruble, who live with their maternal grandmother in Texas.
Robert Jack Tower was born at Comanche, Okla. He attended Ensign and Pernell grade schools, and Elmore and Pernell High Schools graduating from Pernell in 1968. He attended Oklahoma State to study Engineering but didn't like it and transferred to East Central Sate College at Ada where he graduated with honors with a degree in History and minors in PE and Sociology. He was also Co-Salutatorian of his High School Class in 1968. He entered the University of Oklahoma in the summer of 1973 and started working on his Masters Degree. In the fall of 1974, he obtained a teaching position at Potosi, Missouri.
The Glen Bates Tower family is as follow-Glen Bates Tower is my only brother and was born November 19, 1917 at Prague on the family farm northeast of Prague. (Uncle Glen just died this Friday Oct. 8, 1999 at 10:00 PM) He attended Rocky Point grade school and Prague High School, graduating in 1935. He did not go on to school but went to Oklahoma City and obtained a job in the Auto Hotel. He married Reubena Ross May 9, 1937 in Prague, Oklahoma. They have always made their home in Oklahoma City. Glen left the Auto Hotel and took a job with Pepper Refining Co. of Oklahoma City and worked with them until they sold out. In the meantime World War II broke out and Glen was drafted into the Service. He served as a photographer for about two years in the armed services. After Pepper Refining co. sold out, Glen went into Insurance and is still in the Insurance Business.
Glen and Reubena had two sons;
1-Glenn Larry Tower born in Oklahoma City. Larry attended Oklahoma City University and worked as a workman, then as an executive for Bell Telephone. At the present he has his own Collecting Agency with Headquarters in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Larry married Betty Sue Springer. They have two sons;
1-Marc Andrew Tower
2-Thomas Wade born
Glen's second son;
2-Douglas Allen Tower was in Oklahoma City, Okla. He married Lavon Nelson, Augusat Britton Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, Okla. Doug and Lavon have two daughters, Kimberly and Kristin.
My parents raised an orphan girl, Audra Mitchell. Her parents were neighbors of ours. They died Winton two weeks of each other of pneumonia, at a time when pneumonia was almost always fatal. She was ten or eleven when she came to live with us and grew up as my sister. She attended Rocky Point Grade School with me till she decided to go live with her sister, Mrs. Rita Jackson. She married Bill Jackson, her sister's brother-in-law. They have one child, Wanda. Wanda married and how has grown children who are married. Audra and Bill live in Nowata, Oklahoma.
The Tower Genealogy
Copied from Tower Genealogy by Charlemayne Tower
Second Generation
John Tower (1), son of Robert and Dorothy (Damon) Tower, bapt. May 17, 1609; mar. Margaret Ibrook, Feb. 13, 1638-39 in Charleston, Mass. She was b. in England, date not known, and was a daughter of Richard Ibrook. Children all born in Hingham, Mass.
2-1-John (2) bapt. Dec. 13, 1639
2-2-Johnathan (2) bapt. Aug. 1, 1641, died, unmarried
2-3-Ibrook (2) bapt Feb. 7, 1643-4
2-4-Jeremiah (2) Bapt. Mar. 9, 1645-6
2-5-Elizabeth (2) bapt. Oct. 9, 1648
2-6-Sarah (2) bapt. July 16, 1650
2-7-Hannah (2) bapt. July 17, 1652
2-8-Benjamin (2) bapt. Nov 5 1654
2-9-Jemima (2) bapt April 25, 1660
2-10-Samuel (2) bapt Jan. 26. 1661-2 (our line)
John Tower (1) died in Hingham, Mass. Feb. 13, 1701-2, age 92 yrs. 9 months 0 days.
Margaret Ibrook Tower, died in Hingham, Mass., May 15, 1700, age about 83 yrs.
John Tower was born in the parish of Hingham, in the county of Norfolk, in the eastern part of England. An examination of the parish records shows the following entries:
Robert Tower and Dorothy Damon were married, Aug. 31, 1607.
John, child of Robert Tower, bapt May 14, 1609.
Dorithe, the wife of Robert Tower, was buried Nov. 10, 1629.
Robert Tower was buried, May 1, 1634.
This is the whole record of the family of Robert Tower as found in the Hingham Parish records, and the name Tower is nowhere else found in them, and all attempts to find the ancestry of Robert Tower have been unsuccessful. (They are working on it now though. M.P.T.)
The name is a significant one, and we find it in other parts of England, in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; but in most cases the name is spelled with the terminal "S","Towers", and in Scotland we meet with the spelling "Towar". Descendents of the families of these localities are now to be found in this country; but by far the greater part who bear the name are the descendants of John Tower, and these have preserved the ancestral spelling of the name for more than two hundred years, with only occasional corruption in spelling and pronunciation, -as in "Tour" and "Tore".
That the parents of John Tower were in comparatively humble circumstances in life we may infer from the fact that they failed to give their only child so much instruction as would enable him to write his name; or else his omission to write his name to the various instruments he was called upon to execute during his long and somewhat eventful life must have arisen from some physical cause or accident, his contemporaries in emigration, many of whom were born and reared in the same parish, were for the most part instructed in the elements of knowledge; they could write, and some of them with the elegance of penmanship not surpassed at the present day. The earlier record, both of the proprietors and town bear evidence of this.
The causes that led John Tower to leave a comfortable home in England for the hardships of a life in the wilderness, were probably those, which induced so many others to emigrate during the period between 1630 and 1640. The story has been so often told in history that it is only necessary to mention it briefly in a personal narrative.
The long contest both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs in England must reach a result either in suppression or success, The advocates for a change seemed to see their opportunity in emigration, and embraced it. Among the parishes in sympathy with the Puritanical movement was that Hingham, where Robert Peck had been installed as rector a few years before John Tower was born, and under whose ministry John Tower had passed the whole period of his life.
Robert Peck had become so decided in the expression of his opinions as to call for admonition and reform from his superior, Bishop Wren; and under the more forceful administration of Laud, he was reduced to the alternative of submission or flight. He chose the latter, and with many of his parishioners, among whom was John Tower; came to New England in 1637. The chronicler says that many of these sold out their possessions at a great sacrifice. It does not appear from any record what the possessions of John Tower were. In this emigration it was the practice of young men who wished to come, and who were without the means to defray the expense of a passage and to establish themselves, to bind themselves to service to others in better condition for these purposes. The ancestors of some of our more opulent people came into New England as servants.
John Tower, however, seems to have had means sufficient to establish in the colony and to pay his passage.
In a record kept by Daniel Cushing, a town clerk, who made many records of the early settlement of Hingham and of those who came from England, we find the following;
"1637-John Tower and Samuel Lincoln came from old Hingham and both settled at New Hingham."
A few persons were here as early as 1633, but large accessions were made in 1635 by people from Old Hingham and from neighboring parts of Norfolk County, when a church was gathered, and the proprietors received from the colony a grant of land in the limits of the township.
The Rev. Peter Hobart had been called to be the pastor of the church. He was a few years the senior of John Tower, was born in the same parish, educated at, and graduated from, Magdalene College, and seems to have imbibed under the ministrations of his teacher, Robert Peck, the Puritanical sentiment of religious faith and practice.
When John Tower arrived in New England he was not a stranger to the people among whom he came. Some were of his own parish, among whom all the years of his life had been passed, and among whom he was to live through all the rest of his life, and the following year many more came, the most of them from Old Hingham.
The land within the township was granted to those designated as proprietors, which included all such as should thereafter be admitted; and these lands were given or granted to the several proprietors by vote, and the vote, being recorded in the proprietor's records, is the evidence of the grant and the tittle to the land.
These lands were granted for several and distinct purposes which grew out of their situation and want. They needed a compact settlement for social and religious purposes, they had been accustomed to village life in Old England for many generations, and for suitable and mutual aid in protection from the savages they must live near together.
A colonial ordinance limited the granting of house-lots to a distance of half a mile from the meetinghouse. In the laying out of the house-lots in Hingham this ordinance received such liberal interpretation as to extend one mile. John Tower's house-lot was about one fourth mile from the meetinghouse. These lots we limited in size to the supposed wants of the occupants, varying from three to ten acres. John Tower had a lot of three acres, sufficient for a residence and centrally located, but of little value for agricultural purposes. For this latter and most important purpose, lands of greater extent were granted to all to whom house-lots were granted.
These lots were at a distance varying from one to three miles from the house-lots. As the earliest settlers of Mass. brought with them a stock of cattle, the lands which would furnish the cattle with an immediate supply of food were of the greatest value. These lands were the salt meadow bordering upon the many indentations of the sea, and fresh meadow bordering upon the running streams, and where the industrious beaver had by constructed dams conver3ed wooded swamps into a condition for bearing crops of coarse and luxuriant grass. As these lands were quite limited in area, they were granted in small parcels, that all might be accommodated. There was another value these lands had, in the long and coarse grass, which grew upon the immediate banks of the creeks, and whish was used for thatching the roofs of the earlier dwellings.
It is to be understood that these lands were granted without any consideration, except the terms as expressed in the several votes of the proprietors, and were to be held in fee-simple, free from conditions of servitude, and subject to the obligations as the proprietors had made by their recorded votes, as follows:
"1635, Sept. 18-25. "It is agree upon that every man that is admitted to be a townsman and have lots granted them shall bear charges both to church and commonwealth proportional to their abilities, and in case they shall sell their lots they shall first tender them to the town; and in case the town shall refuse to give whit it shall be worth, or find a Chapman to buy it, then it shall be lawful for them to sell it; always provided it be to an honest man that shall be place into the said lot or lots."
It is likewise agreed upon by a joint and general vote of the freemen that all cedar and pine swamps be in common and preserved to the town's use, although any should fall into any man's lots."
The Proprietor's Records show the following grants of land as made to John Tower (page 68), 1637:
"The several parcels of land and meadow legally given unto John Tower by the town of Hingham.
Given unto John Tower by the town for a house-lot, three acres of land lying on Bachelor Street, bounded with the land of William Ludkin, Northwestward, and with the land of Thomas Shaw, Southward, butting upon the street Eastward and upon the common Westward.
Given unto John Tower by the town for a great lot, ten acres of land lying upon the great plain in the first furlong to the eastward of the center, butting upon the highways long to the eastward and westward, bounded with the land of John Tucker northward, and with the land of Thomas Barnes southward.
Given unto John Tower by the town for a planting lot, three acres of land lying in the plain neck, and one acre more at the end of the same for an addition bounded with the land of William Ludkin southward, and with the land of Henry Rust northeastward, butting upon the common northward and southward.
Given to John Tower by the town, one acre and half of Salt marsh on the north side of Layford Lyking River, next unto Ralph Woodward."
The last named grant John Tower lost through the failure of the Hingham proprietors to maintain their title to the same against the Hull proprietors, in an issue before the colonial authorities. Her received satisfaction for the loss by the following grant:
"1647. Given unto John Tower by the town, one acre and half of Salt Marsh at Conyhassett: it is the 29 lot in the fir division, bounded with the meadow of James Buck northward, and with the meadow of Daniel Cushing westward, and with cove, eastward and southward, which meadow was given for satisfaction for meadow given him at Nantascutt.
1647. Given to him one acres of the Salt Marsh at Conyhassett. It is the30th lot in the third division, bounded with the meadow of Mr. Bozoon Allen northward, and with the meadow of Matthew Hawke southward; with the river eastward, and with the town's westward; and he is to have all the above said parcels of land and meadow to him and his heirs forever, be they more or less, as they were measured.
1649. Given unto John Tower by the town, a small parcel of upland lying between Bachelor Street and the Salt Marsh of Thomas Loring."
John Tower does not appear to have built a house upon the lot granted for that purpose by the town, as he sold it the next year. We find in the town records the following:
"1638. Edward Cooper have bo't three acres of upland of John Tower, net to William Ludkin, which was given him by the town for a house-lot."
In this same year, 1638, John Tower made purchase of several parcels of land of Thomas Shaw, who owned adjoining house-lots and upon which he had erected a house, but who had removed to Barnstable, in Plymouth Colony. This sale appears upon the town records, and it would seem that the sale was satisfactory to the town and that the provisions of the vote in making the grant of the land had been complied with in obtaining for a purchaser" and Honest man." The deed of the several parcels of land was made many years subsequent to the sale, for in the Suffolk Records of Deeds, book 8,page 146, and dated June 30, 1665, is found recorded the deed of Thomas Shaw to John Tower, conveying the several parcels of land as they appear in the town records in 1638. The deed is acknowledged before Thomas Hinckley, assistant in the government of New Plymouth, and recorded May 10, 1673, thirty-five years after the sale. It recites as follow:
"Thomas Shaw, sometime of Hingham, but now of Barnstable, in the Gov. of New Plymouth, planter, in consideration a valuable sum of money conveys to John Tower, of Hingham, yeoman, 'All that my dwelling house and house lot adjoining to it, with another parcel of planting ground, my great lot, as also a parcel of Marsh Meadow, all lying and being in Hingham aforesaid, and as it was given and granted to me by the inhabitants of the said Hingham, together with all and singular the profits, common, privileges, and appurtenances to all and every the said premises belonging or any ways appertaining, the said house lot lying or being at the place there commonly called Bachelor's Street, and containing three acres, be it more or less, bounded northwestward by the land of said John Tower, southeastward with the land of Joseph Phippens, southwestward by the common, and northeastward by said Bachelor Street. The other parcel of planting land aforesaid, lying and being at a place called the "Old Planters Hill", containing three acres, be it more or less, bounded southerly by the land of Joseph 'Andrews, westerly by the sea, easterly by the land of Thomas Wakely, northerly by the lands of Thomas Wakely, my great lot aforesaid, lying being at the place there commonly called the great plain, and containing twelve acres, be it more or less, bounded easterly, westerly, and southerly by the highway, and northerly by the lands of Thomas Chubbuck, and the parcels of Marsh meadow aforesaid, containing three acres, be it more or less, bounded northerly by the cove, westerly by the upland, southerly by the Marsh of Thomas Loring, and easterly by the cove."
Other grants and purchases of land were made to and by John Tower, which will be noticed as we proceed. He also sold lands, though but few of these sales are found in the records.
That John Tower was in sympathy with the whole movement which led to the settlement of New England will appear from the fact that on Dec. 13, 1638, he made application to be made a freeman of the Mass. Bay Colony. As none but members of the churches could be admitted as freemen, it would appear that he had qualified himself for admission, as his application was granted on the 13th of March, 1638-9.
He had already taken some part in the business of the town and had joined with some of the principal inhabitants in a committee for important business, as the record recites:
"1638m Dec, 5 By a joint consent and general vote the freemen have chosen and deputed Mr. Joseph Hull, Anthony Eames, Samuel Ward, John Porter, and Joseph Andrews to join with John Otis and John Tower, as they were measured, to lay out the great lots to the eastward of the river in order with 'convenientsie' as may be, with all expedition."
Pending the petition of John Tower for admission to the freedom of the colony, another petition of more importance to this genealogy had been granted, as appears by Rev. Peter Hobart's record, wherein, under date of Feb. 13, 1638-9,we find: "John Tower and Margaret Ibrook married at Charlestown."
Margaret Ibrook was the daughter of Richard Ibrook, of whom we have but brief account. He was among the early settlers of Hingham, having a grant of a house lot on what is now Lincoln Street, but known in the earlier records as "Broad Cove". The two lots next to his northward were granted to William Cockerill, and William Cockram, respectfully who appear to sons-in-law of Richard Ibrook.
Richard Ibrook came to Hingham with his wife whose name I have unable to learn and three unmarried daughters, Ellen, Margaret, and Rebecca. Ellen married Joshua Hobart, a brother of Rev. Peter Hobart, 1638; Margaret married John Tower, as above; and Rebecca married Rev. Peter Hobart. She was his second wife. There appears to be no means for finding the dates of the birth of either Ellen or Margaret. Rev. Nehemaih Hobart, a grandson of Rev. Peter and Rebecca Ibrook Hobart, has following among his records, namely
"1693, Sept. 9 died my Hon'd Grandmother, Rebecca Hobart age 73,lived in New England 55 years."
This would give the date of her coming 1638, three years subsequent to the date of the grant of a house-lot to her father.
The following record are found in Rev. Peter Hobart's Diary:
"1642, Oct. 3 Brother Cockram sayled for England."
1651, Nov. 14 Mr. Ibrook dyed."
1664,April 4 Mother Ibrook dyed."