The community is invited to kick off the summer by learning more about Joseph Glidden and the Glidden Homestead and Historical Center.
From noon to 4 p.m., Sunday, people can visit and tour the home where Joseph Glidden and his family lived when he created his most famous invention, see a working, on-site blacksmith shop, and walk where Glidden walked. Glidden’s brick barn, where archaeological excavation has just been completed, can be considered the monument for the invention of barbed wire, a symbol of innovation in the Midwest.
Glidden developed barbed wire in 1873 and went on to patent numerous other inventions. Barbed wire production continued at the Homestead site through the winter of 1873 into the spring of 1874, when the operation moved into town.
Glidden built the Glidden House Hotel in downtown DeKalb that opened in 1877. In June 1879, J.F. Glidden Publishing bought the DeKalb County Chronicle that had been started earlier that year. Glidden was mayor of DeKalb from 1881 to 1883.
The Glidden Homestead, at 921 W. Lincoln Highway, is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays or by special arrangement. Admission is $4 an adult and free for children younger than 14.