Background
Charles C. Townsend was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now a part of Pittsburgh).
Charles C. Townsend was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now a part of Pittsburgh).
He attended the common schools and Western University in Pittsburgh.
He worked as a manufacturer of wire rivets and nails. During the American Civil War, he served two years in the Union Army as a private in Company A, Ninth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Reserve Corps, and later as adjutant of the First Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry. Townsend was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-first Congress.
He was not a candidate for renomination in 1890.
He was again engaged in manufacturing, and died in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in 1910. He was interred in Grove Cemetery.