of the Fourth Annual Reunion of the Descendants of John Tower, at Detroit, Michigan, June 7, 8 and 9, 1912 AND OF THE Fourth Annual Meeting of the Tower Genealogical Society, at Hingham, Massachusetts, July 20, 1912 E. L. Grimes Company, Printers, 122 Pearl Street, Boston, Mass. INTRODUCTORY "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord N the hill beside the "Old Meeting House" in Hingham there stands the beautiful tower a picture of which adorns the following page. Its musical chimes will undoubtedly be sending forth their sweet tones before this report reaches your hands and many of you have contributed your share toward its completion. It is erected in honor of the founders of the town and in it John Tower (1) has his share of glory as a town father, but it is as the founder of the Tower family in America that the smaller, but no less worthy memorial, is to be set up not two miles from the former. Surely it is no less a thing to have founded a large and honorable family in a new land than to have been one of the original settlers in a colonial town and we honor our ancestor for both reasons. Ever since the inception of the Tower Genealogical Society the fondest wish of our president has been that a memorial worthy of John Tower and his living descendants should be erected in the pleasant cemetery where lie his remains and those of his wife Margaret; in fact, that was his chief reason for founding the Society, and while other interests are important and other lines of development will soon follow, the primary object of the Society should for the present be kept in view. It now seems that within two years there would stand in the place he has selected a monument like the cut which precedes these introductory remarks, an unadorned obelisk of granite sixteen feet high, simple and fine like the life of the man whose memory it is to commemorate, and bearing a suitable inscription, that he who passes may know that the descendants of John Tower from all over this fair land of ours revere his memory. In the ancient city of Rome there stood a temple to Janus, the twoheaded god, one of whose faces looked backward and the other, forward. Every memorial erected in the memory of a good man resembles the statue of this old Roman god, for, like him, it looks both forward and backward. Our proposed memorial points back to the simple, homely virtues of a good man and his wife. We honor them for their fortitude, their honesty, their straightforwardness, their endurance and their piety. If the monument were to be built for no other purpose than to testify to this, it would be a worthy object, but it will fulfill another and an equally great end in its lasting results for coming generations. Every dollar contributed to a memorial fund of this sort is a dollar invested in a trust company that will pay compound interest as long as man shall continue to live on this planet. Will it not testify to all those coming after that in this twentieth century, as always, and in America, as everywhere, the ruling and master principles of integrity of purpose and devotion to duty touched the hearts of men and called forth their admiration? Will it not awaken in the soul of many a youth a desire to go and do likewise? We ourselves, our nation, and our posterity will be benefited by this monument. What sane man will deny that such an investment pays? FOURTH ANNUAL REUNION AT DETROIT, MICH., JUNE 7, 8, 9 1912 Members of Detroit Reunion Committee: Chairman-Rev. Frederic Tower Galpin. Treasurer-Albert Edmond Tower. Daniel Webster Tower, Ray J. Tower, Clyde Omar Tower, Frank Ibrook Tower, Thomas Elmore Tower, Walter Lamont Tower. Program Thursday, the 6th. REGISTRATION, Friday, the 7th. 8 A. M. to 12 P. M.-Registration and Distribution of Badges presented by the courtesy of Daniel Webster Tower, Grand Rapids, Mich. 1.30 P. M. to 7 P. M.-Complimentary Excursion. By courtesy of Ray J. Tower, Greenville, Mich. 8 P. M. to 12 P. M.-Banquet. Given by Michigan Kindred. Address of Welcome-Mr. Warren, President of Board of Trade. Saturday, the 8th. 10.30 A. M. to 12 M.-Visit to Art Museum and Stereopticon Lecture by Prof. A. H. Griffith of Detroit. 2.00 P. M. to 6.00 P.M.-Belle Isle Festival. Sunday, the 9th. To be spent as each visitor desires. A cordial invitation to attend their services is extended by all the churches. |