John Henry Towne was born on February 20, 1818 in Pittsburgh, Pa.
He was the eldest son of Sarah (Robinson) and John Towne, a successful business man. He was a descendant of William Towne who emigrated to Salem, Massachussets, from Yarmouth, England, about 1640.
He received the greater part of his education at the Chauncey Hall School, Boston, and his engineering training from the firm of Merrick & Agnew, Philadelphia, Pa.
In 1836 he became a junior partner in the firm of Merrick.
After the partnership was dissolved in 1849, he engaged in private engineering projects, building gas works in particular, two of which were constructed at New Bedford and Savannah.
In 1856 he was appointed a director and vice-president of the North Pennsylvania Railroad Company, later leased to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company. In 1861 he became a partner of the I. P. Morris & Co. , the firm's name being changed to I. P. Morris, Towne & Co. This company owned the Port Richmond Iron Works, a concern with a national reputation for the construction of all sorts of heavy machinery. He was by this time considered an engineer of unquestioned ability, and he became the firm's chief engineer.
During the Civil War, he produced the engines for the Monitor, Monadnock, Agamenticus, Lehigh, and Sangamon, and for the Itasca, Sciota, Pushmataha, and Antietam. Other engineering achievements included the engines for the federal mint, two huge Cornish Bull pumping engines for the Buffalo water works, and blowing machinery for the manufacture of anthracite iron for such well known firms as the Thomas Iron Company of Hokendauqua, Pa. , and the Lehigh Crane Iron Company of Catasauqua, Pa. Small-sized machinery was also built, but the concern's reputation was based upon its ability to construct the finest kind of large and heavy machinery.
He resigned these offices in 1858, but, while he was connected with the railroad for only a short time, he had been faced with a few of its worst construction, operating, and financial problems. He also held a directorship in the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company between 1862 and 1864.
He died in Paris during a European trip taken, on the advice of physicians, to recover his health. In his will he provided for the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, of which he was a director, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
John Henry Towne was a mechanical engineer who became successful in the design and construction of ocean-going heavy steam ships, which were highly in demand of a growing industrial nation in the mid 19th century. To the University of Pennsylvania, of which he was a trustee, he left his residuary estate as an endowment fund for payment of salaries in the department of science. The trustees, as one means of perpetuating his memory, created the Towne Scientific School of the University of Pennsylvania, in which most of the university's engineering courses are given.
He joined the Franklin Institute in 1835, listing his occupation as a machinist, and became a life member in 1842.
In 1843 he married Maria R. Tevis, the daughter of Joshua Tevis, a prominent Philadelphia merchant. They had three children, one of whom was Henry Robinson Towne.
