©Aaron Nutter
Tower City was founded by and named for Charlemagne Tower, a New York–born lawyer who had come to Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 1846 to work with the legal issues regarding land claims to large coal and mineral deposits in that area. His first Pennsylvania practice was located in Orwigsburg, and then relocated to Pottsville in 1850 when it was made the Schyulkill County seat.
©Aaron Nutter
Not long after Tower came to Pottsville, he began furiously purchasing and clearing liens to lands containing large anthracite deposits in and around Schuylkill County. This was part of an elaborate land grab scheme devised by Tower and his partner, Alfred Munson of Utica, NY.
©Aaron Nutter
The plan called for Tower to use his legal acumen to clear all the liens and opposing claims to the 8 thousand acre (32 km²) Munson-Williams claim, and to all the land around it. In short, the partners hoped to create a single landed estate, which would have measured 65 miles by 4½ miles (105 km by 7 km) at its widest point in southwest Schuylkill County. In return, Tower was to receive ownership and title to one half of all the land acquired once all the cost to Munson had been settled, or until Tower paid him half the value of the total land purchase.
No comments:
Post a Comment