Towner stu­died mu­sic un­der his fa­ther (a well known sing­er and teach­er in his own right), John Howard, George Root, and James Webb. He was mu­sic di­rect­or at the Cen­ten­ary Meth­od­ist Church in Bing­ham­ton, New York (1870-1882); the York Street Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal Church, Cin­cin­nati, Ohio (1882-1884); the Un­ion Meth­od­ist Epis­co­pal Church, Cov­ing­ton, Ken­tucky (1884-1885); and the Moody Bi­ble In­sti­tute, Chi­ca­go, Ill­i­nois (1893-1919). The Amer­i­can Temp­er­ance Uni­ver­si­ty in Har­ri­man, Ten­nes­see, award­ed Towner a Doc­tor­ate of Mu­sic in 1900. His works in­clude:

• Famous Hymns, with Ed­win Ex­cell (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: The Bi­ble In­sti­tute Col­port­age As­so­ci­a­tion, 1907)
• Hymns Tried and True (Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: The Bi­ble In­sti­tute Col­port­age As­so­ci­a­tion, 1911)
• Songs of the Great Sal­va­tion, with William Runyan (Wi­chi­ta, Kan­sas: The Run­yan Mu­sic Pub­lish­ing Co., cir­ca 1918)

Sources

Music

1. Anywhere with Je­sus
2. At Cal­va­ry
3. Ayer
4. Bird with the Broken Wing, The
5. Christ Jesus Hath the Pow­er
6. Covenant
7. Gone from My Heart
8. Full Sur­rend­er
9. Hand That Was Nailed to the Cross, The
10. Hasten, Lord, Thy Com­ing
11. He Will An­swer Every Pray­er
12. He’s a Friend of Mine
13. Hear the Word
14. I Am Stand­ing on the Word of God
15. I Do Love Je­sus with All My Heart
16. If We Bright­ly Shine
17. Jesus Only, Let Me See
18. Joyful Sound
19. Knob Lick
20. Light in the East­ern Sky
21. Moody
22. My Anchor Holds
23. My House Will Stand
24. Nor Silver Nor Gold
25. O Change­less Word
26. O Thou God of My Sal­va­tion
27. O Word of God
28. Old Ship of Zi­on, The
29. On That Great Day of Judg­ment
30. Only a Sinner
31. Safe in Je­ho­vah’s Keep­ing
32. Saved by the Blood
33. Saving Grace
34. Send Out a Light
35. Some Sweet Day
36. Sunset Gate, The
37. Tell Out the Won­der­ful Story
38. Though the Fig Tree Shall Not Blos­som
39. Trust and Obey
40. What Will It Be When We See Him?
41. Victory in My Soul
42. Would You Be­lieve?