Charles Champlain Townsend

Biography Charles C. Townsend was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now a part of Pittsburgh). He attended the common schools and then the University of Pittsburgh (then known as the Western University of Pennsylvania) 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, but resumed his work in manufacturing.

Death and interment Townsend died in New Brighton, Pennsylvania, in 1910, and was interred in the Grove Cemetery.