Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 1, January 5, 1884 | Page 3

under excellent cultivation, a
considerable portion of it having been thoroughly tiled, and his farm

buildings are first-class. Mr. Glidden has been twice married. Two
children were born of the first union, both dying in infancy. By his
second marriage he has one daughter, now the wife of a Chicago
merchant.
[Illustration: JOSEPH FARWELL GLIDDEN.]
Mr. Glidden has held several local offices of trust and honor and enjoys
in a marked degree the esteem and confidence of the citizens of his
neighborhood and county. The rapid accumulation of property of late
years, through his barb-wire patents and business, gave him the means
to gratify his feelings of public spirit, and in consequence the town of
DeKalb has benefited greatly at his hands. Its leading hotel and many
other buildings are the work of his enterprise. Mr. Glidden has never
lost the simple manners of the farm. He is unostentatious, quiet, genial,
and at his hotel makes everybody feel as much at home as though
enjoying the hospitalities of his private house. His kindly, firm, and
intelligent face is well shown in the accompanying portrait, though, as
is usually the case, the hand of the artist has touched his features more
lightly than has the hand of time.
* * * * *
Few names are now more widely known among the land holders of the
country than that of Joseph F. Glidden, the unpretending gentleman
whose life we have briefly sketched. It was his fortune to seize upon an
idea, and push it to development, which has not only given him fame
and fortune, but which has enriched many others and saved many
millions of dollars to the farmers of America. He has not only founded
a mammoth industry, but he has revolutionized an economic system of
the world. By his ingenuity and perseverance the fencing system of a
pastoral continent has been reduced to a minimum of expense and
simplicity. Not that he individually has accomplished all this, but as the
patentee of the first really successful barb-wire fence, he laid the solid
foundation for it all.
* * * * *

The first application for a patent for the Glidden barb was filed October
27, 1873. For some weeks previous to this date Mr. Glidden had had in
his mind the idea of a barb of wire twisted about the main wire of the
fence, leaving two projecting points on opposite sides. He made some
of these by hand with the aid of pinchers and hammer. He strung two
wires between two trees and twisted them together with a stick placed
between them. A pair of cutting nippers was the next addition to his
"kit" of tools. His next means for twisting the two wires together was
the grindstone--attaching one end of the wire to shaft and crank, the
others being fastened to the wall of the barn. And here, as in most
things great and small in this world, woman furnished the motor power.
The strong arm of the good helpmeet, Mrs. Glidden, turned the
grindstone that twisted the first wire that made the first Glidden barb
fence that kept stock at bay in Illinois or the world. Then followed a
device for twisting and barbing, and the application of horse power.
Business expanded, and steam took the place of the horse, and
inventive genius modified and improved the entire machinery, it being
estimated that at least the sum of $1,000,000 has been expended in
bringing the machinery for barb-wire making to its present state of
perfection.
* * * * *
At about the same time that Mr. Glidden was wrestling with his ideas
and devices, Mr. I.L. Ellwood was experimenting to accomplish a like
result with a thin band of metal, the barbs cut and curved outward from
the strip. In the meantime Mr. Glidden had put up a few rods of his
hand-made barb-wire along the roadside at his farm. And here again the
good genius of woman enters upon the scene. One Sunday Mr. Ellwood
and his wife were driving along this road and attracted by the wire
fence stopped to examine it. Mrs. Ellwood, much to the chagrin of her
husband, remarked: "This seems to me a better device than your own,
don't it to you?" It did not then, for the remark disappointed and
angered him. But it set him to thinking and before the next morning he
was of the same opinion. The two men meeting the next day it did not
take long to compromise and unite. Mr. Ellwood dropped his own plans
and accepted a half interest in the Glidden patents, and assumed the

management of the business end of the concern, in which position he
developed ability and tact possessed by few business men in this
country.
* * *