Joseph Glidden - Definition and Overview

Joseph Farwell Glidden (1813-1906) was an American farmer who invented barbed wire, a product that forever altered the development of the American West.

Glidden was born in Clarendon, New York. In 1843, he moved to Illinois with his wife Clarissa Foster. She and her two sons died after the move, and Glidden married Luvinda Warne in 1851.

He created barbed wire by using a coffee mill to create the barbs. Glidden placed the barbs along a wire and then twisted another wire around it to keep the barbs in place. He received the patent for barbed wire in 1874 and was quickly embroiled in a legal battle over whether he actually invented it. He eventually won and created the Barb Fence Company in DeKalb, Illinois. His invention made him extremely rich. By the time of his death in 1906, he was one of the richest men in America.