Tower is an unincorporated village governed by Forest Township. Township population is 929. Township Hall is located at 9511 M-68/33, Tower, MI
Tower was established in 1899 when a post office was established. The community was named in honor of Ellen May Tower. Ellen's father lived in Onaway, and Ellen was the first woman to volunteer her services to her country as a nurse in the army and was accepted in 1898. Ellen traveled to New York, and then to Puerto Rico to care for solders who were injured in the war. In Puerto Rico, she was stricken with typhoid fever and died in December, 1989. Ellen was the first American woman to die on foreign soil in service to our country. She was the first woman from Michigan to be honored with a military funeral with full honor.
The lumbering industry was flourishing in northern Michigan in the late 1800's. People were coming to the northwoods by rail as well as by wagon. Men were bringing their families to a new and rich area of miles and miles of virgin timber. Settlements were springing up in areas close to rivers, lakes, and railroad crossings. Tower was one such settlement. It was close to both the Black River and the Detroit & Mackinaw railroad.
Stores, livery stables, saloons, banks, and a school were already in existence when the people knew there was a need for a post office. These businesses were near or on the main street now known as Barclay Avenue. The post office and the settlement needed an official name. A few months earlier, Ellen May Tower had died while serving our counry during the Spanish American War. Everyone agreed to name the new settlement and post office "Tower" in rememberance of such a great person. Her father was a prominent businessman who lived in the nearby community of Onaway.
In the early 1900's Tower was booming. Population was 800 according to records from the village. Also records show that Tower had five saw mills surrounding the Tower Pond. They produced lumber, handles, butter bowls, shingles, and staves. In winter, ice cutting was an industry. The pond ice was cut to store for railroad refrigerator cars as well as for ice for the community needs.
The main street (Barclay) was lined with hotels, laundry, banks, newspaper, blacksmith shop, livery stable, general store, barber shop, dance hall, post office, and fire department with there own horse drawn fire truck. They had boardwalks lining the main street. Other buildings around town included churches, school and seven saloons. Nearby Onaway was a dry town at that time so Tower provided ample refreshments for their citizens also. Tower had a lock-up with 6 inch thick plank walls.
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The first post office was located in the M.D. Meyers building which also housed the bank on Barclay Avenue. In the 1920's, the post office moved across the street to what was known as the Kendall Buidling. It was a two story building that also housed a store that sold groceries and yard goods. In the mid 1940's, the building changed ownership as was remodeled. Soon the store became a thing of the past and that space was used to increase the size of the post office.
When the railroads led to northern Michigan, mail was delivered to the area on a regular basis. By that time,railroads were made post routes. The Detroit & Mackinaw was one of the 10,000 trains used in the 1930's to deliver mail. By 1970, railroads were virtually eliminated as mail transportation.