HR0424 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0424 LRB102 19606 MST 28375 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to commemorate the 160th anniversary of the founding of the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead in DeKalb in 1861; and

WHEREAS, The Glidden Homestead and Historical Center sits on the site where Joseph Farwell Glidden invented barbed wire with his second wife, Lucinda; he lost his first wife in childbirth in 1846 and his three children during an epidemic a year later in 1847; and

WHEREAS, Joseph Glidden, along with hardware merchant Isaac Ellwood and lumberman Jacob Haish, crafted the idea for a "barbed-wire" fence upon witnessing a fence board with projecting brad points at a county fair in September of 1873; and

WHEREAS, Joseph Glidden and Lucinda experimented in the home's kitchen using a coffee mill to create the first-ever strand of barbed wire; and

WHEREAS, At the age of 61, Joseph Glidden traveled to Chicago to patent his new invention on November 24, 1874; and

WHEREAS, Joseph Glidden and Isaac Elwood then built the world's first barbed wire factory in 1874; and

WHEREAS, In 1857, Joseph Glidden, Isaac Elwood, and Jacob Haish, along with journalist Clinton Rosette, founded what is now Northern Illinois University with part of the land where the idea for barbed wire originated; and

WHEREAS, Later, Joseph Glidden served until his death in 1906 at the age of 93 as publisher for founding editor Clinton Rosette's Daily Chronicle newspaper in DeKalb; and

WHEREAS, By the time of Joseph Glidden's death, Isaac Ellwood estimated that their factory had produced enough barbed wire to circle the earth 17 times, earning DeKalb the nickname of "The Barbed City" to this day; and

WHEREAS, Barbed wire played a significant role in settling the American West, where it became popular due to the lack of stone or wood available for fencing crops and livestock; and

WHEREAS, The Illinois State Historical Society has erected a historical marker commemorating barbed wire manufacturing at the Glidden Homestead; and

WHEREAS, Members of the Glidden family have lived on the Glidden Homestead from the time it was built in 1861 until 1998, when it became a museum; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we commemorate the 160th anniversary of the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead and Historical Center as an expression of our esteem and respect.