Glidden Homestead

148 years ago this week, on March 14, 1874, Joseph Glidden applied for a patent for an Improvement in Wire-Stretchers for Fences (patent #150,683). The device maintained a uniform tension of the wires of a fence. This stretcher patent was awarded BEFORE his barbed fence patent.

During the Chicago Fire, the DeKalb County News, on October 18, 1871, covered County residents' experience there. Joseph Glidden’s daughter, “Miss Elva Glidden reached home from Chicago Tuesday night. For hours, [on] Monday the sand & the lake shore was her only protection.”

Clinton Rosette Glidden was born in DeKalb 125 years ago this week on March 8, 1897. He attended the Northern Illinois State Normal School as the class of 1918 and worked at American Steel and Wire. A US Marine, Glidden was killed in battle during WWI. ire on July 19,1918.

'"Oh my!' he yelled. 'She's plum beat.' "As we drove on, I said: 'Father, can't we get some of that wire fence?' Father said he must look into it. As an adult, John Glidden owned and lived with his family at the Glidden farm from 1910 until his death in 1941.

"We went on to town and in a few days we were going by again and there was the wire stretched up on the cow yard fence and Brindle stood looking at it. "My father said: 'Dan, did it work? What about Brindle?'

Dan Carroll, mentioned in John Glidden's memory of the his Uncle Joseph's invention of barbed wire, is shown in the enlarged photo at left. Brindle the cow may have resembled the cow pictured.

In 1892, 130 years ago this week, Isaac Ellwood retook control of the I.L. Ellwood Manufacturing Company. The change back to Ellwood’s leadership meant DeKalb would, “now more than ever be the center of the wire fence business of the northwest," both capital invested and output.

“You ought to see one of J.F. Glidden’s new corn cultivators. It beats them all,” according to the July 1, 1893, DeKalb Chronicle. 134 years ago today, on February 21, 1888, Joseph Glidden and DeKalb blacksmith Phineas Vaughan received a patent (#378,089) for a cultivator.

This week, on February 13, 1900, Joseph Glidden received a patent for a Soil-Pulverizer (Patent # 643,408), an agricultural device he’d invented. But simple device boasted 9 separate unique claims! He had applied for the patent just seven months before, on July 18, 1899.

Barbed wire, Steel, Carbon, Chemical element, Chemical substance, Matter, Classical physics, Physics, Natural science, Branches of science, Science, Knowledge, Fact, Truth, Reality, Imaginary/object of the mind, Object, Philosophy

Fun Fact: Discovered prior to May 2008, it was found that clicking on the first link in most Wikipedia pages leads to the Philosophy article in 97% of Wikipedia pages. The Joseph Glidden Wikipedia page, where the first link is for Barbed Wire, leads to philosophy in 17 steps:

146 years ago this week, on February 8, 1876, the US Patent Office awarded Joseph Glidden two REISSUES (USRE6,913 and USRE9,614) for an “Improvement in Barbed Fence-Wires,” both the same day. These two patents secure Glidden’s claims on both two-point and a four-point barbs.

Huldah White, mother of Mabel Carter Glidden, was born 186 years ago this week, on February 5, 1836 in Chautauqua County, New York. Involved in the women’s suffrage movement, she was the last charter member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union when she died in 1915.

Elva Glidden, Joseph and Lucinda Glidden's daughter, married William Bush 145 years ago this week, on February 1, 1877 at the Glidden home. Leading up to the wedding, local papers carried news that “society circles here are agog over the forthcoming wedding.”

146 years ago this week, Joseph Glidden applied for his last wire patent (Patent 181, 433), on January 26, 1876. This design was for a special oval-twist barb. It effectively marks the end of Glidden's innovative four-year streak in wire.

151 years ago today, on January 24, 1871, Henry Martin Rose (1837-1901) of Waterman patented (#111,256) his version of a cultivator. Rose is known to be the inventor that inspired Joseph Glidden, Isaac Ellwood and Jacob Haish with his 1873 fencing device (#138,763).

Joseph Glidden was born 209 years ago today in 1813. Founding father James Madison was president. Glidden invented barbed wire in 1873 & received more than 20 other patents—virtually all of them after he was 60. When Glidden passed away in 1906, the Wright Brothers were flying.

The most well-known of the photographs of Glidden Homestead taken during Joseph Glidden’s lifetime dates from about 1882. He had built a hotel in downtown DeKalb and moved there in 1877. But the Homestead continued to be the residence of Glidden relatives who managed the farm.

126 years ago this week, on January 11, 1896, John & Mabel Glidden married in DeKalb. The “contracting couple,” as the January 13, 1896, Chronicle called them, married in a private ceremony at the Carter house, Third & Locust. After 1910, John & Mabel lived at Glidden Homestead.