150 years ago, Joseph F. Glidden, who lived in DeKalb and farmed this area, invented a barbed wire which was intended to keep a cow out of his wife’s gardens. From there, the interest in this product boomed and created countless jobs. On a nationwide scale, it “fenced the West!”
Long after DeKalb’s invention, this thorny creation was used in other ways, beyond what its original creators would have imagined, including an oppressive version of fencing and in World War I. However, its roots in DeKalb remained agricultural, and DeKalb reaped those original benefits: Glidden donated 64 acres of his own land to create a teacher’s college, today’s Northern Illinois University. He permitted the railroad to come through his farmland, promoting the continued growth of DeKalb. He brought a hospital to DeKalb. His competitor Jacob Haish brought a world-class library. Their impact was immense. That’s why so many people still celebrate the barbed wire story. This town was built by that invention. Without it, DeKalb would be but a small dot on the map.
The Glidden Homestead has two locations on the National Register of Historic Places, one of which is DeKalb’s unique “artifact,” a brick barn where the most successful barbed wire was created. Through the hundreds of schoolchildren that come through the doors each year, we ensure this place, and its thorny history, will matter forever, even if its history is only 150 years old….so far.
I'm Jessi Haish LaRue, executive director of the Glidden Homestead in DeKalb, and that's my perspective.
