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:

• Hymns of Faith and Praise (Day­ton, Ohio: Lo­renz Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1901)
• 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)