by Robin Furth
MOTHER (UNNAMED): VI:202
SISTER AND TWO BROTHERS: V:538
GOOD-MIND FOLK: Like the CALVINS, the Good-Mind Folk are a group of researchers hired by the Tet Corporation. Whereas the Calvins are scholars, the Good-Mind Folk are psychics. Their headquarters are located on a ranch in TAOS, NEW MEXICO. Although they squabble a lot, the Good-Mind Folk and the Calvins work together. VII:507–8, VII:510, VII:517, VII:586 (watch)
FRED TOWNE: Fred is the most talented of the Good-Mind Folk. His predictions are many and they are rarely wrong. Fred is the Tet employee who states that Roland’s Patek Philippe watch will either stop or run backward once he nears the DARK TOWER. VII:517, VII:518
GUARD AT DIXIE PIG: VII:523
HAMMARSKJÖLD PLAZA ASSOCIATION: VII:505
LIMOUSINE DRIVER: VII:520–21
OLD FARTS OF THE APOCALYPSE: See FOUNDING FATHERS, listed above
SECRETARY: VII:504
SECURITY GUARDS AT HEADQUARTERS: VII:495 (rose), VII:496 (Tet headquarters), VII:505 (Tet headquarters)
THREE TOOTHLESS MUSKETEERS: See FOUNDING FATHERS, listed above
THINNY
See entry in PORTALS
**THOMAS OF GILEAD (THOMAS WHITMAN)
The Dark Tower series contains references to two different characters named Thomas. One was a gunslinger companion of Roland’s youth who witnessed Roland’s coming-of-age battle against CORT. The second was a young man from the novel Eyes of the Dragon. This second Thomas (who met Roland only briefly) was in pursuit of RANDALL FLAGG. (For pages including references to Flagg’s pursuer, see entry under R.F.) In the 2003 version of The Gunslinger, we learn that Roland’s friend Thomas had the last name Whitman.
I:162 (Roland’s childhood friend), I:167–73 (witnesses Roland’s coming of age)
THOMPSON, FLIP
See KING, STEPHEN
THONNIE
See MANNI
THORIN, CORAL
See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: SEAFRONT
THORIN, HART
See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: SEAFRONT
THORIN, OLIVE
See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: SEAFRONT
THREE TOOTHLESS MUSKETEERS
See TET CORPORATION: FOUNDING FATHERS
THROCKEN
See BILLY-BUMBLERS; see also OY
BABY THROCKEN: Under extreme duress, NIGEL, the robotic butler we meet in the FEDIC DOGAN, gives this baby billy-bumbler to MORDRED so that the spider-boy can suck it dry. Softhearted Nigel suffers a complete mechanical meltdown because of it. VII:163–64, VII:166, VII:180, VII:182
THROCKEN AND THE DRAGON
See DRAGON
TIA JAFFORDS
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: ROONTS
TIAN JAFFORDS
See JAFFORDS FAMILY
TICK-TOCK
See GRAYS: GRAY HIGH COMMAND
TIGER, IMMORTAL
See ROSE
TILLY
See GRAYS: GRAY HIGH COMMAND
TIM STOUTHEART
See ROSS, TIM
TIMBERSMITH FARM CHARACTERS
See SKIN-MAN: SKIN-MAN’S VICTIMS
TINY BRADDOCK
See SKIN-MAN: SKIN-MAN’S VICTIMS: JEFFERSON RANCH
TIRANA
See CAN-TOI
TODASH DEMONS
See DEMONS/SPIRITS/DEVILS
TOMAS, MARIA
See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: HAMBRY MAYOR’S HOUSE (SEAFRONT)
TOOK, EBEN
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS
TOOK, OLD
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS
TOOK FAMILY
See CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS: OTHER CHARACTERS
TOOK (TOOK’S OUTLAND MERCANTILE)
See WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE: CHARACTERS MET BETWEEN GREEN PALACE AND RIVER WHYE
TOOTHAKER, ELVIRA
See MAINE CHARACTERS
TOPEKA CHARACTERS
At the beginning of Wizard and Glass, Roland and his ka-tet journey on BLAINE the Insane Mono and crash into an alternative version of TOPEKA, KANSAS. According to Roland, Topeka is where MID-WORLD ends and END-WORLD begins. It is also where the first part of our tet’s quest is completed. Although this alternative version of Kansas is much like the state found in the KEYSTONE WORLD, this version of Topeka has been devastated by the superflu virus, a disease that killed off most of America’s population in STEPHEN KING’s related novel, The Stand.
CORCORAN, JOHN: Topeka Capital Journal correspondent. IV:74
HACKFORD, DR. MORRIS: Doctor at Topeka’s St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. He reports on superflu. IV:74
MONTOYA, DR. APRIL: Doctor at Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center. She reports on superflu. IV:74
TOPSY
Roland’s horse in “Little Sisters of Eluria.”
E:146–54
TOPSY THE SAILOR
See PUBES
TOREN, CALVIN
See TOWER, CALVIN
TOREN, EDDIE
See DEAN, EDDIE
TOREN, JAKE
See CHAMBERS, JAKE
TOREN, STEPHAN
Stephan Toren was CALVIN TOWER’s great-great-great-grandfather. His will (written on March 19, 1846) included a piece of paper addressed to ROLAND DESCHAIN, OF GILEAD/THE LINE OF ELD/GUNSLINGER. Although the will itself no longer remains, the piece of paper addressed to Roland survives, as does the dead letter’s envelope. The envelope bears the symbols for “unfound,” symbols which also appear on BLACK THIRTEEN’s box and upon the UNFOUND DOOR.
V:541–42, V:546, VI:187, VI:195
TORRES, MIGUEL
See HAMBRY CHARACTERS: SEAFRONT
TOTAL HOGS
See MUTANTS: SLOW MUTANTS
TOTEMS OF THE BEAM
See GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM
TOWER, CALVIN (CALVIN TOREN, MR. EX LIBRIS, OLD FATTY, VOICE NUMBER ONE)
Calvin Tower (born Calvin Toren) is the owner of the MANHATTAN RESTAURANT OF THE MIND, located on SECOND AVENUE. In The Waste Lands, he sold Charlie the Choo-Choo and Riddle-De-Dum to JAKE CHAMBERS. The Toren family (a Dutch name which means “tower”) were the original custodians for the Vacant LOT, located on FORTY-SIXTH STREET and Second Avenue, and for the wild, dusky-pink ROSE which grows there. Not surprisingly, the Toren family are linked to the DESCHAIN family, who are custodians for the DARK TOWER. In fact, there is a good chance that one of Calvin’s ancestors met one of Roland’s forefathers, or perhaps even met Roland himself. When EDDIE DEAN visits the Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind in 1977 to convince Tower to sell the Lot to the TET CORPORATION instead of to the CRIMSON KING’s evil SOMBRA CORPORATION, Calvin shows him the envelope in which his great-great-great-grandfather kept his will. Although the dead letter has long disappeared, a single brittle sheet of paper remains, and that sheet is addressed to Roland Deschain, of GILEAD, the line of ELD.
Just as Eddie Dean saves Calvin Tower from BALAZAR’s thugs when they try to force him to sell the Lot to Sombra, Tower and his friend AARON DEEPNEAU are destined to rescue FATHER CALLAHAN as he is being attacked by the HITLER BROTHERS in the TURTLE BAY WASHATERIA in 1981. Since Deepneau and Tower try to keep their identities secret during this escapade, Callahan can only identify Tower as “Voice Number One” and “Mr. Ex Libris,” the latter name derived from the words engraved on the signet ring he wears.
In Song of Susannah, a reluctant Tower agrees to sell both Vacant Lot and Rose to Roland and Eddie. Although Tower has little to do with the Tet Corporation once it is formed, he does make one extremely valuable contribution. Borrowing an idea he found in a science-fiction novel written by BEN SLIGHTMAN JR. (who wrote sci fi under the name DANIEL HOLMES), he tells Aaron Deepneau and the other FOUNDING FATHERS to hire precogs and telepaths to help them battle their archenemies (the Sombra Corporation) and to protect their two charges (the Rose and STEPHEN KING). These psychic GOOD-MIND FOLK prove to be extremely useful. However, another group of more ordinary researchers—hired to catalogue and index the works o
f Stephen King—are the ones who acknowledge Tet’s debt to Tower the most openly. They christen themselves the Calvins in honor of this grumpy old bibliophile. Calvin Tower dies of a heart attack in 1990.
III:114–18, III:119, III:277, III:281, V:54, V:55–58, V:62–70, V:92, V:93, V:94–106 (rose and Sombra), V:118, V:168–69, V:196, V:338, V:437–42 (as cavalry, as Voice Number One, and as Mr. Ex Libris), V:447–48 (cavalry), V:471, V:503–5, V:517, V:518–50, V:584–85, V:591, V:593, V:595, V:597, V:599, V:600, V:618, V:622–24, V:626–28, V:703–4, V:705, V:706, V:709, VI:7, VI:35, VI:36, VI:81, VI:84, VI:136–37, VI:139, VI:140, VI:141, VI:142, VI:154 (indirect), VI:163, VI:171, VI:177–80, VI:183–212, VI:214–16, VI:269, VI:334, VII:19, VII:37–38, VII:39, VII:122 (indirect), VII:123, VII:128, VII:495, VII:507–8, VII:509, VII:821
BRICE, MR.: One of Calvin Tower’s clients. V:543
FATHER (UNNAMED): VI:195
FIRST WIFE: V:530–31
GRAHAM, TOMMY: He owned TOM AND JERRY’S ARTISTIC DELI, which once sat on the Vacant LOT located on SECOND AVENUE and FORTY-SIXTH STREET. When the deli went bust, Tower paid for it to be torn down. V:531
GRANDFATHER (UNNAMED): VI:195
HARRIED-LOOKING WOMAN: V:593–94
MIDDLE-AGED COUPLE: V:596
SERGIO: Shop cat. He lives at the MANHATTAN RESTAURANT OF THE MIND. V:67, V:525, V:543, V:548, V:549
SHOE SHINE BOY: V:593
TOREN, STEPHAN: See TOREN, STEPHAN, listed separately
TOWNE, FRED
See TET CORPORATION: GOOD-MIND FOLK
TRAINS
See CHARLIE THE CHOO-CHOO
TRAMPAS
See CAN-TOI
TREE VILLAGE CHARACTERS
In the novel The Wind Through the Keyhole, Roland told YOUNG BILL STREETER the story of another brave young boy, TIM ROSS (later Tim Stoutheart), a lad who not only had to face the terrors of a STARKBLAST but (like Billy) had to identify his father’s murderer. In Tim’s case, the murderer was his father’s best-friend and woodcutting partner, BERN KELLS.
Most of the folktale “The Wind Through the Keyhole” took place in or near Tim’s home village of TREE, which was located at the farthest reaches of NORTH’RD BARONY, at the edge of an unexplored wilderness called the ENDLESS FOREST. Most village men were woodcutters, like Tim’s father, BIG JACK ROSS, and his evil stepfather, Big Bern Kells. But much as the villagers loved the forest, they also feared it, and for good reason. Ten wheels beyond where the BLOSSIE GROVES ended and the IRONWOOD trees began, lay an unexplored wilderness of virgin forest and impassable swamp. According to local belief, the area contained not only the deadly leavings of the OLD PEOPLE but mythical creatures such as DRAGONS.
GENERAL: W:110–11, W:112 (stories about Widow Smack), W:115 (smell of forest), W:131 (villagers), W:244, W:257, W:264 (Widow Smack’s burial)
ANDERSON, RUPERT (BALDY ANDERSON): In order to pay his own tax and that owed by his new wife, the widow NELL ROSS, BIG BERN KELLS sold his land to Baldy Anderson, on of Tree’s big farmers. (He was originally going to sell his land to FARMER DESTRY.) Since Anderson knew Kells was desperate for money, he didn’t give him full price for either his house or land. Kells remained bitter about it. W:125–26, W:133, W:171–73
BOYS: W:172
BALDY ANDERSON: See ANDERSON, RUPERT, above
CONSTABLE HOWARD: See TASLEY, HOWARD, below
COSINGTON, ADA: See WOODSMEN: COSINGTON, PETER, below
COSINGTON, PETER: See WOODSMEN, below
DESTRY (FARMER DESTRY, OLD DESTRY): In order to marry NELL ROSS and pay off both their taxes, BIG BERN KELLS decided to sell his place to Farmer Destry. Old Destry had hard coin, and wanted Kells’s land because it sat next to his east field. Although Destry seemed fairly honest (when TIM ROSS cut hay for him, Destry paid him in scrip, and also gave him a sack of his goodwife’s sweet peppers and busturd tomatoes), Kells decided to sell to RUPERT ANDERSON instead. He regretted the decision, since Anderson was tight. W:114, W:116, W:117, W:120, W:123, W:144 (Tim asks about dragons), W:186 (picture of rifle)
DESTRY BOYS: Farmer Destry’s sons. W:127
HUNTER (SPOT HUNTER): Spot Hunter got his nickname because of his freckles. Hunter and his brother, STRAW WILLEM, helped Tree’s posse search for the murderer BIG BERN KELLS. W:175
RANDY: Randy was Straw Willem and Spot Hunter’s big brother. He was one of the first people to see BIG BERN KELLS get drunk after his marriage to NELL ROSS. W:128
STRAW WILLEM: Straw Willem got his nickname because of his nearly colorless hair. He worked at the TREE SAWMILL with TIM ROSS. Straw Willem was the first person to tell Tim that his stepfather, BIG BERN KELLS, was drinking again. He enjoyed sharing this ugly piece of news. W:127–28, W:129, W:170, W:175, W:255
WIFE: Destry’s goodwife gave a sack of sweet peppers and tomatoes to TIM ROSS after he cut hay for her husband. W:120
HAGGERTY THE NAIL: When TIM ROSS broke into his steppa BERN KELLS’s trunk, he discovered a toolbox and five extra ax-heads. Tim was enraged, since Kells could have sold these rusty tools to Haggerty the Nail. Even after paying his taxes, he would have had money left over and Tim wouldn’t have had to give up his lessons at the WIDOW SMACK’S COTTAGE. W:142
HODIAK (BARONY BUYER): Twice a year, Hodiak, the barony buyer, came to Tree Village sawmill to buy IRONWOOD. Ironwood commanded a high price, since it was used to make seagoing vessels. (Although Blossie wood was good for lake boats, it wasn’t strong enough for sea travel.) W:111
KELLS, BIG BERN: See KELLS, BIG BERN, listed separately
KELLS, MILLICENT: See KELLS, BIG BERN: KELLS, MILLICENT, listed separately
MARCHLY, EARNEST (SLOW ERNIE MARCHLY): See WOODSMEN, below
MELLON: BERN KELLS fell off the wagon while he was talking to Mellon about the man’s new stake. Kells started out with a ginger-beer, but when someone put a glass of jackaroe in front of him, he drank it without thinking and then he was off. W:128
POSSE: See KELLS, BIG BERN, listed separately
RINCON, DEF: While hiding from the POSSE that wanted to arrest him for murder, BERN KELLS spent two nights shivering in Def Rincon’s barn. W:262, W:263
RIVERLY: The COVENANT MAN told TIM ROSS about Riverly’s dead cows. W:158
ROSS, BIG JACK: See ROSS, BIG JACK, listed separately
ROSS, NELL: See ROSS, NELL, listed separately
ROSS, TIM: See ROSS, TIM listed separately
SIMONS, FRANKIE: The COVENANT MAN told TIM ROSS that Frankie Simons broke his leg. W:157–58
SPLINTER HARRY (OLD SPLINT): Splinter Harry was one of the codgers who worked part-time at the TREE SAWMILL. Old Splint was half foolish and liked to babble nonsense, pretending it was High Speech. He liked nothing better than talking about the men from Gilead who carried the big irons and went forth on quests. When Tim met the MUDMEN of the FAGONARD and pretended to be a young gunslinger, he used the phrases that Old Splint had taught him. W:202, W:205
STOKES, DUSTIN (HOT STOKES): Dustin Stokes, also known as Hot Stokes, ran a burying parlor behind his smithy. This was where the murder victim, BIG JACK ROSS, was finally laid out. W:173, W:176–78, W:179
TASLEY, HOWARD (CONSTABLE HOWARD): According to BALDIE ANDERSON, when it came to prosecuting criminals, Constable Howard wasn’t worth a fart in a high wind. He spent too much time in TAVARES, either looking for poachers or visiting the woman he kept there. W:166–67, W:172
VENN, RUPERT (SAWMILL FOREMAN): Although he was TIM ROSS’s foreman at the TREE SAWMILL, Tim thought that Rupert Venn was a decent sai. He told Tim and STRAW WILLEM that they might get more work at the mill if the season’s snowfall was light. W:129
WIDOW SMACK: See WIDOW SMACK, listed separately
WOMEN OF TREE (LADIES OF TREE, NELL’S FRIENDS): After Nell was blinded by her second husband, BIG BERN KELLS, these women came to her aid. (However, none nursed Nell as devotedly as the WIDOW SMACK.) W:124 (view Nell with pity on her wedding day), W:173, W:174, W:175, W:176, W:179, W:252
WOODSMEN: W:11
0–11, W:122, W:179
COSINGTON, PETER (PETER “SQUARE FELLA” COSINGTON, SQUARE FELLA COSSIE): Square Peter Cosington and SLOW ERNIE MARCHLY cut wood on the COSINGTON-MARCHLY STAKE. Both men were friends of the Rosses. According to BIG JACK ROSS, neither Cosington nor Marchly was willing to go into the deep wood, near the FAGONARD, where the densest ironwood could be found.
Before Big Ross’s death, a tree fell across sai Cosington’s back, laying him up for eight weeks. This accident, and the fact that a POOKY had taken up residence in one of their STUBS, meant that the Cosington-Marchly stake was deserted for a good stretch of time. BIG BERN KELLS took advantage of this and hid the body of his murdered partner there. When TIM ROSS told Peter Cosington, Ernie Marchly, and Baldy Anderson that Kells had thrown his father’s corpse in their stream, Cosington wanted to kill Kells for the insult as well as the crime. Square Fella Cosington was one of the POSSEMEN who went after Kells. W:149, W:150, W:157 (stake), W:158, W:159, W:160, W:162, W:168, W:171–73, W:176 (found Big Ross), W:176–77, W:178–79, W:189 (stake), W:190, W:257 (stake)
COSINGTON, ADA: Ada Cosington was one of NELL ROSS’s friends. After the WIDOW SMACK saved Nell’s life, Ada and several other women traveled to the Ross-KELLS house to help out. W:173–74, W:175
KELLS, BIG BERN: See KELLS, BIG BERN, listed separately
ROSS, BIG JACK: See ROSS, BIG JACK, listed separately
MARCHLY, ERNEST (SLOW ERNIE MARCHLY): Slow Ernie Marchly was SQUARE FELLA COSINGTON’s cutting partner. The two of them cut the COSINGTON-MARCHLY STAKE. After a tree fell on Peter Cosington’s back, laying him up for eight weeks, Ernie Marchly did not go cutting alone. Hence, his stub was deserted long enough for BIG BERN KELLS to hide Jack Ross’s body there, in a stub where a POOKY had taken up housekeeping. (Because of the pooky, the stub was left fallow even after Cosington’s recovery.) Both Ernest Marchly and Peter Cosington were incensed that Kells dared to leave Ross’s body on their stake. Along with BALDY ANDERSON, these two men drummed up the posse that set out to bring Bern Kells to justice. However, in the end it was Tim Ross and his mother NELL who ended Kells’s evil life. W:149, W:150, W:157 (stake), W:158, W:160, W:162, W:168, W:171–73, W:189 (stake), W:257 (stake)
