A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA
William M. Glenny, M. D.
WILLIAM M. GLENNY, M. D., a skilled physician and surgeon of Albia, Iowa, was born in Lebanon, Warren county, Ohio, on the 25th of April, 1838. The family is of Scotch-Irish extraction. The grandfather of our subject, William Glenny, was a native of the Emerald Isle, and emigrating to America located in New York. The Doctor's father, John Glenny, was a native of New Jersey, and at an early day emigrated Westward, casting his lot with the pioneer settlers of Warren county, Ohio. There he carried on agricultural pursuits for some years, after which he resided in Illinois, making his home near Quincy until his death, which occurred in 1841. His wife long survived him, and passed away in Albia, Iowa, in 1885. She bore the maiden name of Jane Murphy, and was born in New Jersey, in 1812, her father being Thomas Murphy, who held a Major's commission in the Revolutionary war.
The Doctor is the eldest and the only surviving member of the family. He passed his boyhood under the parental roof, and attended the district schools of Ohio, for after the father's death the mother returned to that State with her family, locating at Xenia, Greene county. There the Doctor continued to reside until fifteen years of age, when he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, of Delaware, where he pursued his studies for two years. On the expiration of that period he went to Cincinnati, where he secured a clerk ship in a drug store, being there employed until the summer of 1856. He then resolved to seek a home in the \Vest, thinking that he might have better opportunities in a country less thickly settled, where competition was not so great. He therefore located in Keokuk, Iowa, where he remained until the summer of 1857, when he removed to Fairfield and took up the study of medicine with Dr. N. C. Steel, a prominent physician of that place. Subsequently he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Keokuk, pursuing a course of lectures there.
Immediately afterward Dr. Glenny entered upon the practice of his chosen profession, in Lowell, Henry county, Iowa, where he continued for six years, although in the meantime he spent three years in the army. Having enlisted as a private in the Tenth Iowa Infantry, he was afterward promoted to the rank of Surgeon of the Forty-ninth United States Colored Infantry, with headquarters at Vicksburg, Mississippi. For two years he remained in charge of the general hospital, and his service was no less arduous or important than that of the soldier on the field. He faithfully remained at his post of duty until the spring of 1866, when, the war having ended, he was honorably discharged.
Returning to the North Dr. Glenny first located in New London, Henry county, Iowa, where he made his home for six years, and within that time took a course of lectures at the State University at Iowa City, graduating in the spring of 1873. In that year he came to Albia, Monroe county, where he opened an office and has since engaged in general practice. He has always been a close student of his profession, keeping thoroughly abreast of the times. He has built up a successful business, and has won an enviable position in the ranks of the medical fraternity in this section of the State. The Doctor is a member of the State Medical Society and also of the Des Moines Valley Medical Society.
In the fall of 1860 the Doctor was married, the lady of his choice being Miss Mary E. Mount, of Fairfield, Iowa, a native of West Virginia and a daughter of John Mount. They have three children: William M., who is now a train dispatcher of the Northern Pacific Railroad; Nellie May, wife of James Todd, a resident of Kansas City; and Elmer F., station agent at Spooner, Wisconsin, in the employ of the Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul & Omaha Railroad.
From A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa, Volume I, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1896, pp. 594-595.
Transcribed July, 2015 by Conni McDaniel Hall.