Glattly, Jacob

JOHNSON, WOLF

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 12/9/2009 at 20:58:55

No history of the pioneer settlement or of the later growth and development of Bremer county would be complete without mention of the life and career of Jacob Glattly, one of the earliest settlers in this locality and today one of its oldest citizens. From 1855 to 1892 he was closely identified with agricultural interests here, witnessing the period of the county's greatest growth and development and bearing an active and honorable part in all work of progress. The years have brought him success and a substantial fortune, upon which he is now able to live retired, making his home in Sumner.

Mr. Glattly was born in Switzerland in 1824 and he acquired his education in the public schools of that country. At twenty-one he received his compulsory military training, studying military tactics for a few weeks each year for three years. At the end of that time the Swiss soldier is given a uniform, a gun and one hundred cartridges and is obliged thereafter to hold himself in readiness for war at a moment's notice. Mr. Glattly was called to the front and fought in two battles in a dispute between two religious factions. He was a teamster in the heavy artillery and at one time had one of his horses shot in battle.

When he was thirty years of age Jacob Glattly emigrated to the United States and settled immediately in Bremer county, Iowa, where he purchased from the government forty acres of land at one dollar and a quarter per acre. Pioneer conditions prevailed everywhere at that time. The land was mostly wild prairie and the nearest trading point was at Independence, whither Mr. Glattly often walked thirty miles with his butter and eggs, which, before the Civil was formed, was the principal medium of exchange. His farm work progressed rapidly. He used oxen for plowing and gradually broke the soil, living during the progress of his work in an unfloored log cabin. This remained his home until 1871, when it was replaced by a modern frame dwelling. Through many years thereafter Mr. Glattly carried forward the work of improving and developing his homestead and he gradually brought it all under cultivation, erecting substantial buildings, installing good equipment and finally becoming the owner of a valuable and productive farm. In 1892 he retired from active life and, after residing in Fayette for four years in order that his children might attend the Upper Iowa Univeristy, came to Sumner, where he has since resided.

In Switzerland Mr. Glattly married Miss Mary Glattly, who was born January 1, 1834, and who died on the 10th of June, 1903, leaving seven children: William, of Afton, Iowa; Mary, who married C.E. Johnson and who now resides with her father; Albert, of Alta Vista, Iowa; Solomon, of Mount Pleasant, this state; Charles, also a resident of Mount leasant; Bertha, the wife of C.V. Wolf, of Denver, Colorado; and Benjamin, of Hot Springs, South Dakota.

Mr. Glattly is a member of the Presbyterian church and a democrat in his political beliefs. He has served as township trustee and road supervisor and he was for eleven years school treasurer. Since coming to America he has made two journeys to Switzerland, one in 1906 and the other in 1913, as a delegate to the World's Sunday School Convention. This last journey was in marked contrast to his first trip across the Atlantic. In 1855 he was a steerage passenger on a sailing vessel which required twenty-eight days to cross the water and he encountered many hardships and inconveniences as well as peril from storms. In 1913 he crossed the Atlantic in nine days, traveling on a modern, well equipped steamer and surrounded with all the comforts know to the present day traveler. The difference measures the degree of his prosperity. Through his own energy, determination and enterprise he has worked his way upward in the world and he stands today among the substantial and representative men of Bremer county, where for fifty-eight years he has made his home.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914