Hugh Glenn<

HUGH GLENN. Wichita County honors as one of its pioneer settlers, and also as a citizen whose able service has been a helpful factor in the community, Mr. Hugh Glenn, now cashier of the First State Bank of Leoti and for many years incumbent in the office of register of deeds. He came in 1886, the year following the date of the first permanent settlement.

He is a native of Canada, but has spent nearly all his life in Kansas. He comes of Scotch and Irish stock, and has many of the hardy and thrifty virtues of the race. His grandfather, Hugh Glenn, was an itinerant shoemaker who carried his kit of tools over England and Scotland and mended and made shoes in many private homes. He was a native of Edinburgh. In the early part of the last century he crossed the ocean and established a home in Ontario, Canada. This ancestor was noted far his fine physique and vigor, and when eighty years of age he was able to outrun his grandson Hugh in a foot race. In Canada he spent his time chiefly as a farmer. When very old he followed his son to Kansas, and is buried in Harvey County. Grandfather Hugh Glenn married Eliza Blackburn, who is also buried in Harvey County, beside her husband. They had two sons, Robert and William. William also came to Kansas in 1872, and spent the rest of his life as a farmer in Harvey County.

Robert Glenn, father of the Wichita County pioneer, was born September 1, 1839, on Amherst Island, one of the islands of Lake Ontario within the Canadian jurisdiction. He had the ordinary advantages of the common schools, and as a youth he became a sailor on the Great Lakes. This vocation he changed for farming after he married, and had accumulated a moderate share of wealth when he left Canada and came to the United States. The date of his removal to Kansas was in November, 1871. Bringing his family, he located in Harvey County, and he is still occupying the old claim which he took up forty-six years ago. In the course of time he has developed his land into one of the best farms of Harvey County. It is located on Sand Creek, five miles from Newton, and in one of the most fertile and prosperous sections of the county. Robert Glenn has been the kind of man who is seldom known outside his home community and yet is an invaluable factor to American citizenship. He has done his work well, has provided for his family, has performed those responsibilities of community life, and has exerted his efforts to support churches and schools. He has always been a republican, but never an office holder. When he came to Kansas he had money enough to build only a small frame house on his farm, and only gradually did he reach financial independence.

Robert Glenn married Eliza Sloan. Her father, Benjamin Sloan, was of Irish stock and a Canadian farmer. She died in 1898. Robert Glenn and wife had the following children: Hugh; William E., of Newton, Kansas; Benjamin, of Fossil, Oregon; James H., of Hedgewick, Kansas; John, of Walla Walla, Washington; Eliza, who married Frank Hackney, who died in Harvey County; Julia A., who married Mack Ditto and lives on the old home farm in Harvey County; Maurice A., of Fossil, Oregon; Fred, still on the old farm; Frank, who is in the Santa Fe offices at Newton, and Henry, a farmer living near his father.

Hugh Glenn was born at Kingston, Ontario, May 8, 1864, and was seven years of age when the family came to Harvey County. He grew up in that county, attended the country schools, and he started life with a minimum of book learning but with considerable practical experience. He had energy, self reliance, and with these qualifications he has never been at a loss to make his way in the world.

On reaching his majority he determined to seek a home for himself upon the Kansas frontier. He had a team and drove it from Newton to Wichita County. He entered his homestead and a preemption twelve miles north of Leoti, in section 13, township 17, range 38. After getting his land he had little money left, and like most of the early settlers, circumstances compelled him to put up a sod house as his pioneer home. From the first he did all he could to get a living from the land, and he was successful save for one year, when he did work in Colorado. During the winter of 1890-91 he was employed in the Pueblo smelter. The seven years he spent on his claim he had success about the average. His first good crops of wheat came in 1891 and 1892. Though he tried to avoid the ordeal, Mr. Glenn was compelled to borrow money on the credit of his land, and one of the great satisfactions of his life came when he was able to lift the mortgage. He did so when wheat crops became profitable.

On leaving his homestead Mr. Glenn bought a livery barn in Leoti, and conducted it from July, 1893, until May, 1904. During that period the livery business was a profitable enterprise. While in business he was also elected sheriff of the county, and gave four years of creditable administration as the successor of Sheriff Elwood Edmundson. This was a period of comparative quiet, the troubles incident to the location of the county seat having occurred before his term. In 1903 Mr. Glenn was elected to the office of register of deeds, succeeding E. M. Greenawalt, and the ability with which he has conducted the office and the confidence reposed in him by his fellow citizens is well illustrated in the fact that he has been re-elected and has served continuously, being now in his fourteenth year in the office. He was nominated for sheriff of his county and has no competitor for the 1918 election.

In January, 1914, Mr. Glenn became cashier of the First State Bank of Leoti. This bank was organized in 1896 by home people, chiefly among whom were P. E. Callahan, the first president; George W. Young, T. W. Pelham, F. W. Denny, L. Q. Hardesty, C. S. Triplett and W. J. Chubbuck. The bank has always kept its capitalization at $10,000. A statement dated September 10, 1916, shows surplus and undivided profits, $2,065.56; individual deposits, $71,723; certificates of deposit, $2,655. It is a prosperous institution, is conservatively managed, and at the same time is a bulwark to the prosperity of the community. The present officers are: W. C. Dickey, president; Harry E. Willis, vice president; Mr. Glenn, cashier; the board comprises Mr. Dickey, Harry E. and W. E. Willis, R. B. Christy and Mrs. Mime Reinheimer.

Though for so many years identified with the business and official interests at Leoti, Mr. Glenn is still interested in farming, has a large place out in the country, and is breeding registered Percheron horses. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a past noble grand.

Mr. Glenn began his life in Wichita County as a single man, but on September 29, 1889, he was married here to Miss Nettie Kissinger. Her father, L. W. Kissinger, a native of Pennsylvania, served as a Union soldier from that state, and was also one of the early settlers in Wichita County, Kansas. He finally exchanged his holdings here for a farm in Franklin County, Kansas, where he died. Mr. Kissinger married Julia A. Sommers. They were the parents of two children, Mrs. Glenn and J. O. Kissinger, of Leoti. Mr. and Mrs. Glenn have three children, Theo, Florence and Charles C.