Joseph Farwell Glidden was born on January 18, 1813, and died on October 9, 1906. He was an American businessman and farmer who invented the modern barbed wire. In 1898, he gave land in DeKalb, Illinois, to help create the Northern Illinois State Normal School. This school was later renamed Northern Illinois University in 1957.

Early life

Glidden was born in Charlestown, New Hampshire, and was of English heritage. His family later moved to Clarendon, New York. He worked as a teacher in Clarendon for about 8 years. During this time, he married Clarissa Foster in 1837. In 1843, he moved to Illinois with his wife and children. They first lived in Ogle County and later moved to DeKalb, where they bought a farm. His wife died in 1846 while giving birth to their daughter in Ogle County, Illinois. In 1847, an epidemic caused the deaths of their three children, including the infant daughter Clara (Clarissa). The two sons died after the family moved to DeKalb. Glidden married Lucinda Warne in 1851, and they had one daughter named Elva Frances.

Invention and patent for barbed wire

Joseph Glidden started working on ways to create a useful barbed wire to fence cattle in 1873. He made his best design by using a coffee mill to shape the barbs. He placed the barbs along a wire and twisted another wire around it to hold the barbs in place. He called this design "The Winner," which was his best invention. Glidden received a patent for this barbed wire design on November 24, 1874, when he was 61 years old. He and a local hardware dealer named Isaac L. Ellwood began making and selling the barbed wire as the Barb Fence Company in DeKalb, Illinois. In 1876, Glidden stopped manufacturing the wire but kept receiving money from sales. He sold his share of the business to Washburn and Moen, a company in Worcester, Massachusetts, that already produced steel wire. Ellwood stayed in DeKalb and renamed the company I. L. Ellwood & Company. This company later became American Steel and Wire and was eventually bought by U.S. Steel Manufacturing Company.

Glidden faced a legal challenge from a man named Jacob Haish, a neighbor in DeKalb, who claimed that the design for holding the barbs in place with an extra wire was not new. Earlier patents for barbed wire had been issued to others, including one in Ohio. Glidden won his case in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1892, but his patent protection ended that same year. The legal costs were estimated to be $100,000.

This invention made Glidden very wealthy. He earned about $1,000,000 in royalties before his patent expired in 1892. Companies making barbed wire under his license operated in places from New York to Kansas by 1884. When Glidden died in 1906, he was one of the richest men in America. His assets, including the Glidden House Hotel, the DeKalb Chronicle, farmland in Illinois and Texas, and the Glidden Felt Pad Industry, were recorded as worth one million dollars.

From 1852 to 1854, Glidden served as sheriff of DeKalb County. He also worked on the county’s board of supervisors in several years, including 1851, 1861, 1862, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, and 1876. In 1867, he helped organize a fair for the DeKalb County Agriculture and Mechanical Society. In 1876, he ran as a Democratic candidate for Illinois State Senator. From 1861 to 1874, he was on the board of school directors and paid the highest school tax in the county. He also contributed to building a church and held positions such as vice-president of the DeKalb National Bank, director of the North Western Railroad, and owner of the DeKalb Rolling Mill.

To show how effective barbed wire was, Glidden and his sales agent, Marques Fortner, created the "Frying Pan Ranch" in Texas in 1881. The wire was transported by wagon from Dodge City, Kansas, and the timber came from Palo Duro Canyon and the Canadian River Valley. A herd of 12,000 cattle was branded with the "Panhandle Brand," which cowboys called "frying pan." This ranch proved the success of barbed wire and changed how ranching was done.

Henry B. Sanborn, a sales representative for Glidden’s company, owned a ranch in Grayson County, Texas. In 1881, he bought land near the Canadian River, including Tecovas Spring, a place once used by Native Americans and traders. A surveyor named John Summerfield reported that the spring had a steady flow of freshwater. Sanborn built a ranch headquarters there and enclosed 120 miles of land with barbed wire for $39,000 (about $1.3 million in 2025 dollars). Cedar posts from Palo Duro Canyon and other areas were used to support the wire.

Railroads also bought large amounts of barbed wire to prevent cattle from wandering onto their tracks.

The Frying Pan Ranch later had 15,000 cattle and expanded to 125,000 more acres. In 1898, Glidden gave the ranch to his son-in-law, William Henry Bush. Between 1908 and 1920, William Henry Bush and his wife, Ruth, built a larger ranch house near Tecovas Spring. This house later became the home of Stanley Marsh 3 and his wife, Wendy. Wendy was the daughter of Emeline Bush and Frank O'Brien, who were the children of William Henry and Ruth Bush. Stanley Marsh called the estate "Toad Hall."

Land for the Northern Illinois State Normal School

Glidden, who once taught students, donated 63 acres (255,000 m²) of his land as a location for the Northern Illinois State Normal School. The school began operating on September 12, 1898, with 139 students and 16 teachers. In 1957, the school’s name was changed to Northern Illinois University. The town of Glidden, Iowa, was named to honor him.

Personal life

In 1851, he and his wife Lucinda had a daughter named Elva Frances. Elva Frances married William Henry Bush in DeKalb on February 1, 1877. Lucinda died on October 28, 1895. Elva died in 1906, shortly before her father, and is buried in the Glidden family plot in a cemetery in DeKalb.

In 1898, Glidden transferred his Frying Pan ranch in Texas to his son-in-law, W. H. Bush. After becoming widowed in 1908, Bush married Ruth Russell Gentry. He is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.

In popular culture

In Back to the Future Part III, the character known as the "barbed wire salesman" is inspired by either Joseph F. Glidden or John Warne Gates, who was an early supporter of barbed wire. The role is performed by Richard Dysart.