Born in Bureau County, Illinois, December 9, 1856, and is a son of John and Sarah J. (Valentine) Townsend. He was reared in Bureau County, Illinois, and acquired his early education in its public schools, and after coming to Iowa he attended the public schools of Webster County. The winter he was eighteen years of age he began teaching school. During the time he was teaching he began the study of medicine under the direction of O. E. Evans, M. D., of Gowrie, Iowa. To the efficiency of the instruction and good advice of Dr. Evans, Dr. Townsend gives great credit for his success in his chosen profession. He attended a course of lectures at the College of Physicians, at Keokuk, during 1879-80, and afterward attending at Chicago and graduating at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Des Moines, March 4, 1887. In the fall of 1887 he became a member of the Central District Medical Association, and in 1888 a member of the Iowa State Society. In 1890 he was a delegate from the State Medical Society to the American Medical Association, which met at Nashville, Tennessee, a delegate a second time to the American Association, at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1896, and again a third time, in 1902, the American Association meeting that year being held at St. Paul, Minnesota. On the 15th of May, 1884, Dr. Townsend was married to Myra M. Hawthorne, a native of Upper Kent, Carlton County, New Brunswick. The town of Lohrville was incorporated during the winter of 1883 and S. G. Crawford was elected mayor. The following spring Dr. Townsend was elected as a member of the council, a position to which he was re-elected several terms. He was elected mayor in 1897 and again in 1898, and served until March, 1900. He was a member of the school board from 1890 to 1900, being president of the board for several years. He entered the campaign of 1899 as a candidate for state representative with J. C. Lowry, of Pomeroy, and R. A. Horton, of Manson, as candidates for nomination against him. About the middle of the campaign Mr. Horton withdrew and the contest was a spirited one from that time until the primaries, when the votes were counted and it was found that Dr. Townsend had three hundred and one more than Mr. Lowry, and consequently received the nomination, which in that strong Republican district meant election. In 1901 he was again a candidate for the same office and received the nomination of his party without contest, and was re-elected, thus serving in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth general assemblies of the legislature, where he made a record for careful, conservative work, of which he may justly feel proud. As a Republican he has always taken a lively interest in promoting the welfare of the party, and his official duties have been creditably and satisfactorily discharged. He is a member of the Republican Grant club of Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Townsend also belongs to the following civic societies: Zerrubbabel Lodge, No. 240, A. F. & A. M.; Cypress Chapter, No. 99, R. A. M.; Rose Croix Commandery, No. 38, K. T.; Lohrville Lodge, No. 469, I. O. O. F.
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