Joseph Glidden
The Baron of Barbed Wire

Joseph Farwell Glidden (1813-1906) was born in New Hampshire and later lived in New York. In 1837, he married, moved to Illinois and bought a farm in DeKalb.

In 1873, Glidden patented an improvement on Michael Kelly's first attempt at making barbed wire. Just as importantly, he also made the machinery to mass-produce his product.

Barbed wire significantly affected political, social, and economic practices throughout the region--namely closing previously "open range" and water holes for roaming buffalo as well as cattle.

The invention and wide-spread use of this "tool" ranks in importance in taming the West as the locomotive, repeating rifle, six-shooter, telegraph and windmill.

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