Horace Mann Towner

Horace Mann Towner ( born October 23, 1855 in Belvidere, Illinois, † November 23, 1937 in Corning, Iowa ) was an American politician and from 1923 to 1929 governor of Puerto Rico.

Towner studied law at the University of Chicago and the Union College of Law. He was admitted to the legal profession in 1877 and was until 1880 practiced law in Prescott ( Iowa). He then worked for the School Board and in 1890 was elected as a district judge in Iowa, which he remained until the end of 1910. From 1902 to 1911 he held at the University of Iowa lectures on constitutional law. In 1910 he was elected for the Republican Party in the House of Representatives of the United States, where he served from March 4, 1911 until April 1, 1923, an electoral district in Iowa. He resigned his seat to become governor of Puerto Rico, an office which he held until 1929.