LETTER FROM OREGON
December 6, 1923 - North Vernon Plain Dealer
Letter to the Editor from D. L. Glenn - Ashland, Oregon
I have been quite interested in some of the articles published lately in the North Vernon papers, those in the North
Vernon Sun as to the part Jennings County took in the Civil War and now comes the write up by James W. Feagler of what he knows about pioneer
days. He tells us he was born in 1844. The year I was born. I was born in Clermont County, Ohio. But we moved to Jennings County, Indiana
when I was only three years old, and settled about a mile east of Centerville, where we had the Simpsons, the Giboneys, the Tweedys, the Lindleys,
Rusts, Youngs, Fables, Deals, Rowdybushes and others for neighbors and the country seemed pretty well settled up, but things were then, compared
to the present, in a primitive state. On the corner of our farm in the woods was a log school house with a big fireplace and as I remember us
youngsters sat on benches that had no backs and row of light along two sides of the room where a log had been lifted out just above a shelf that
was used for a writing desk. The teachers kept a sharp knife with which he made pens of goose quills, that we young folks picked up in the pasture
lot. Hence we have the term pen knife. Our studies were limited to reading, writing and arithmetic, and well they were, for we only had school
three months in the year instead of nine as we have it now. In those days we got most of our schooling from nature. We became more familiar with
tree and plant life than the children do now, when there is so much else to take up their time. It seems now that there was not a tree in the woods
or a plant in the field, but what I knew their names and their uses. So with the birds, and wild animals, that were more plentiful than now. Also
the fish that were then so plentiful. The gogali sunfish, catfish, suckers and lastly the crappiiie a new comer, as some called him. I was rather
amused at Feagler's fish story, as I had never seen them so plentiful as he tells that one might walk across the riffles on them, I guess from what
he says he thoght we might take that part of his letter with a grain of salt. I have seen salmon here to fill the streams below dams that one could
not see the bottom for them. This is a wonderful age in which we live and I am sure glad I have lived in it. The year I was born the first telegraph
line was put up in the United States by Mr. Morse, built from Washington D. C., to Baltimore.
Mrs. Glenn and I are stopping temporarily at our son-in-laws, T. H. Simpson's and last night we were listening to talks and
music over the radio in Los Angeles, about eight hundred miles away. It 1899 Mrs. Glenn and I were in Indianapolis and got first sight of an automobile
and we were told that there were six at that time in the city, and now 23 years later one can hardly walk the streets for them, say nothing of the
flying machines and other wonders of the age. Instead of the tallow candle that mother made or the old grease lamp, we touch a button and the whole
house is lighted and the tide of emigration has filled the mighty west. A few years before the Civil War we sold our farm east of Centerville and had
our wagons all painted up and horses ready to go to Iowa. Father bought 450 acres of government land near where Des Moines now stands. Today we have
the car lines, a score or more from the Atlantic to the Pacific shore. Well what has Jennings County done. She has played her part. Her citizenship
is represented in many parts of our fair land. I have two pictures here in a scrap book. One of Judge Leander H. Prather who for many years was looked
up to as one of the leading citizens of Spokane Washington, the other is a picture of William Gibony who was known in Jennings County, son of Thomas
Gibony, one of my old teachers, William Gibony was for years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Spokane, and under his ministry his church
became one of the strongest in the city. These are only samples of some of the citizens that Jennings County has sent out to help develop other parts
of the country. Our daughter Nellie Glenn Simpson and her husband T. H. Simpson went to the Shriners' Convention at Washington D. C. in June. They
passed thru Pittsburg on their way and arranged for a meeting with Harold Cope and his wife. Harold and Nellie were playmates when children and she
and Mr. Simpson met Mr. Cope when he was in San Francisco several years ago at the World's Fair with an exhibit. They had a letter last week from and
him and his wife and in it they speak of having made quite a trip thru the east and at some point ran on to one of Dr. Light's sons, who is running a
pin factory. I thought of what the Plain Dealer has so often said "You Can't Loose Old Jennings" Mrs. Glenn and I have rented our home and expect to
start south about the sixth of December, go to Sawtelle where her brother Ben Hargrove lives and his daughter Jennie Hargrove Ely and her family. We
expect to see more Jennings County folks and old time friends. Not sure, but plan later to visit Florida and meet there some more of our tribe. My
letter is getting lengthy, so I think it time to chop off, so will close with kind wishes for all who may read. D. L. Glenn, Ashland, Oregon.
November 30, 1939 - North Vernon Banner Plain Dealer
D.L. GLENN DIES AT ASHLAND, OREGON
Word has reached this city of the death of Daniel L. Glenn, a former resident of Jennings County. Who passed away at a hospital
in Ashland, Oregon. _______ Novemeber 19th. Had he lived until December 12th, he would have been ninety-five years old.
Daniel L. Glenn was born in the year 1844 in Claremont County, Ohio and came to Jennings County with his parents when he as a
five year old. In the year 1872 he married Mary Catherine Hargrove, who preceded him in death.
He joined the union Army with Company K, 82nd Indiana Regiment, in the Civil War and earned the rank of corporal. He served
three years and was wounded at Chackamauga, September 20, 1863 amd at Atlanta, August 7, 1864. He joined the Methodist Church by letter while Sherman's
army was quarted at Ringold, preparing for the "March to the Sea" and remained a member of the church for seventy-seven years. He was mustered out of
the army June 9, 1865.
He moved his family to the State of Washington in 1889 and five years later moved to Ashland, Oregon, where he remained a resident
until his death. He engaged in building, contracting for a number of years. He was a member of Burnside Post G.A.R. in Ashland.
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