Joseph Glidden

Joseph Farwell Glidden ( born January 18, 1813 in Charlestown, New Hampshire, † October 9, 1906 in DeKalb, Illinois) was an American farmer who patented it the barbed wire on November 24, 1874.

In 1814 his family moved to Clarendon, New York. He worked on the family farm and as a teacher. In 1837 he married Clarissa Foster, with whom he had two sons. In 1842, he moved in with his brother Josiah by DeKalb (Illinois ) (then Buena Vista), where he had acquired from cousin Russell Huntley a farm. After his wife was in 1843 complied with the children, she died at the birth of his daughter. The sons succumbed to an epidemic. In 1851 he married Lucinda Warne ( 1826-1895 ) and in July 1852 daughter Frances Elva Glidden was born. The following year he was elected sheriff. To 1861, he built his stone house.

In 1873 he tinkered with a coffee grinder its barbed wire, to which he received a patent in the following year. In the patent he described his invention as wire fences ( wire fences ). After he had established the Barb Fence Company, is a three-year patent dispute followed. After winning this, he sold half of the rights for $ 60,000 and royalties to the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Company. He was thus one of the richest men in the United States.

He became vice president of the DeKalb National Bank, Director of the North Western Railroad and owner of a newspaper and a hotel.

He had two sons and a daughter. His two sons died in their youth. His daughter Elva (1852-1906) married in 1877 William Henry Bush ( 1849-1931 ), a well-known farmer, entrepreneur and businessman.