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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives wish to commemorate the 160th anniversary of
4the founding of the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead in DeKalb in
51861; and
 
6    WHEREAS, The Glidden Homestead and Historical Center sits
7on the site where Joseph Farwell Glidden invented barbed wire
8with his second wife, Lucinda; he lost his first wife in
9childbirth in 1846 and his three children during an epidemic a
10year later in 1847; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Joseph Glidden, along with hardware merchant
12Isaac Ellwood and lumberman Jacob Haish, crafted the idea for
13a "barbed-wire" fence upon witnessing a fence board with
14projecting brad points at a county fair in September of 1873;
15and
 
16    WHEREAS, Joseph Glidden and Lucinda experimented in the
17home's kitchen using a coffee mill to create the first-ever
18strand of barbed wire; and
 
19    WHEREAS, At the age of 61, Joseph Glidden traveled to
20Chicago to patent his new invention on November 24, 1874; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Joseph Glidden and Isaac Elwood then built the
2world's first barbed wire factory in 1874; and
 
3    WHEREAS, In 1857, Joseph Glidden, Isaac Elwood, and Jacob
4Haish, along with journalist Clinton Rosette, founded what is
5now Northern Illinois University with part of the land where
6the idea for barbed wire originated; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Later, Joseph Glidden served until his death in
81906 at the age of 93 as publisher for founding editor Clinton
9Rosette's Daily Chronicle newspaper in DeKalb; and
 
10    WHEREAS, By the time of Joseph Glidden's death, Isaac
11Ellwood estimated that their factory had produced enough
12barbed wire to circle the earth 17 times, earning DeKalb the
13nickname of "The Barbed City" to this day; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Barbed wire played a significant role in settling
15the American West, where it became popular due to the lack of
16stone or wood available for fencing crops and livestock; and
 
17    WHEREAS, The Illinois State Historical Society has erected
18a historical marker commemorating barbed wire manufacturing at
19the Glidden Homestead; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Members of the Glidden family have lived on the

 

 

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1Glidden Homestead from the time it was built in 1861 until
21998, when it became a museum; therefore, be it
 
3    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
4HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
5we commemorate the 160th anniversary of the Joseph F. Glidden
6Homestead; and be it further
 
7    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
8presented to the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead and Historical
9Center as an expression of our esteem and respect.