Joseph Glidden: The Illinois Farmer Whose Wire Fenced the West

Who Was Joseph Glidden?

Joseph Farwell Glidden was born January 18, 1813, in Charleston, New Hampshire, and died October 9, 1906, in DeKalb, Illinois. He was a farmer who invented a practical way of attaching barbs to wire, and one history calls the wire he patented the barbed wire that fenced the West.

Beef ranching changed because of it. His Texas holding, the Frying Pan Ranch, gave the new fencing a large test field, and a Ranchlands history of the property ties the two stories together.

From a Farm in DeKalb to a Patent

After an 1842 journey west, Glidden bought 600 acres near DeKalb, Illinois, by 1844, and expanded to 1,500 acres where he farmed and raised cattle. As described on Encyclopedia.com, he applied to the U.S. Patent Office on October 27, 1873, and was granted U.S. Patent 157,124 on October 20, 1874, for his method of attaching barbs to wire.

Jacob Haish challenged Glidden's priority, and the dispute went through the courts for about a year. The decision favored Glidden, and he later testified as a witness in other barbed wire litigation.

How Did Glidden Make Money from Barbed Wire?

Glidden and Isaac Ellwood formed the Barb Fence Company. About a year later Glidden sold his half interest to the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Massachusetts, for more than $60,000 plus royalties for the life of the patent. His royalties continued until 1901.

For several years production doubled each year, with wire selling to farmers in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa.

The Frying Pan Ranch

Dates for the ranch differ. The Ranchlands history says that in 1878 Glidden sent his son-in-law William H. Bush to look at a Texas Panhandle ranch for sale and judge whether it could be fenced. Encyclopedia.com says that in 1881 Glidden and H. B. Sanborn bought 125,000 acres and later added another 125,000 acres of Texas public school land.

The ranch was fenced with Glidden wire and stocked with 1,500 head of cattle. Sanborn led the project while Glidden stayed in the background. The ranch is just west of Amarillo, and much of its original 10-gauge west fence still stands.

Frying Pan Ranch Over the Years

Bush never lived on the ranch but visited for several weeks at a time two or three times a year until his death in 1933. His wife kept the ranch through the Dust Bowl even though he had suggested selling.

The ranch was conventionally ranched for over a century. Two families leased it from the 1950s until 2019, when Ranchlands became the successor. With help from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a pipeline now delivers water to tanks along the ranch and hotwire subdivides pastures.

Legacy

The patent that the Ranchlands page calls the barbed wire that fenced the West was later sold to the company that became U.S. Steel, per that history. A Wikipedia biography lists more detail on his life. For more ranching history see the ranching section on farm.FM or read a story about barbed wire and ranching.