Thomas Louis Glenn
1847-1918
History of Idaho Volume 13, page 986-987
Hon. Thomas Louis Glenn; To be ranked among the foremost lawyers of Idaho, one must be possessed of superior abilities indeed, for there is gathered the keenest of legal talent, a large majority being young men, alert, energetic and well educated for the profession. Yet there are older practitioners there also, most of them equally well fortified in professional training and possessing the advantage of having had prior to their coming to this state, long previous experience in dealing with intricacies of law. One of the latter class in Honorable Thomas L Glenn, of Montpelier, distinguished as one of the first of Idaho's citizens in character and talents, and well known as one of the state's eminent lawyers and as one of its former congressmen and able public servitors.
Born in Bardwell, Ballard County Kentucky, February 2, 1847, he has inherited to a marked degree that intellectual vigor, moral courage and kindly but dignified and polite bearing which have been characteristics of Kentucky's best citizens. His father was Tyree Glenn and his mother was Miss Barzilla Jarvis Lawrence, both North Carolinians by birth and both m\bearing names of old and honored connections in North Carolina. The parents were married in Tennessee near Bone Cave, Van Buren County, but in 1833 they took up their home in Ballard county, Kentucky, where the father took up farm lands and was engaged as a farmer and stockman until his death in 1849 at the age of forty.
Six children were born to this union and of this family Thomas L was 5th in birth and is one of two yet surviving; the other being a brother, Ivy Lawrence Glenn, a well known retired business man of Pueblo Colorado. After the father's death the family moved to Evansville Indiana, then to Centralia Illinois and the to Cairo Illinois, where the mother continued to reside until her demise in 1862, when forty-two years of age.
Thomas L received but limited schooling in his earlier years but such as he did obtain was secured at Evansville Indiana, and the college at Millburn Kentucky, serving also as an assistant teacher while a student at the latter institution. The opening of the Civil War in 1861 found him at Cairo, a youth in his fifteenth year and fired with the ambition to become a soldier, but his repeated efforts to join ranks, were unavailing on account of his age. Here, however, he gave evidence of that tenacity of purpose that has been a predominate character of his subsequent career. Not to be deterred he sold newspapers to the soldiers of the army then mobilized there and followed General Grants forces from Cairo down into Mississippi. There the longed for opportunity to realize his ambitions came and made him a member of Company F, Second Kentucky Calvary, Confederate Army known as Dukes Regiment, being under General John H Morgan, with which he experienced the fortunes of war, passing thru many perils, being exposed to many trying vicissitudes, escaping unharmed, until about the close of the first year's service, when he was severely wounded by a minnie ball that shattered the bones of his right shoulder. From this wound he did not recover until October 1868, though wounded June 9, 1864.
He sough refuge in the home of a southern planter, but was taken prisoner by the Federals and was detained until Sep 9, 1864. He was then yet in his teens and an orphan. On his release from prison he returned to Ballard county, Kentucky, where he took up employment on his grandmother's farm and having decided that law should be his life pursuit, he set about diligently to prepared for the position by reading law during such leisure moments as came to him, rapidly gaining proficiency with his quick mind and naturally studious habits.
His public career began early and as that of most public men ought to, with an active participation in local affairs, in the course of which he gained a thorough confidence of his fellow citizens. In 1874 he was elected county clerk of Ballard Co and was reelected in 1878 by a large majority. During this period he had continued to read law. At the conclusion of his second term he took up the practice of law, having in the meantime so successfully prosecuted his legal studies and so amply demonstrated his abilities that he had been able to practice before all the courts. In 1887 he was called to higher honors when he was elected a state senator to represent four Kentucky counties. Fulfilling that office he rendered efficient and valuable service to that state as a member of different important committees, one of which was the investigation of locks and dams on the Green and Barren Rivers and of this committee he was chairman. This investigation led to very satisfactory results as the system was later taken over by the government for approximately $10,000, though the price asked at the first was $150,000.
At the expiration of his senatorial term in 1890 Mr. Glenn decided to migrate west and selected Idaho as the state in which to make his new home. He located at Montpelier, Bear Lake county, where he at once began the practice of law and where his rise to the front ranks of his profession was rapid, soon attaining a commanding eminence in this direction in eastern Idaho and becoming well known throughout the state. Here again in 1900 he was called into public life when he was prevailed upon to accept the Democratic nomination for Congress and was elected in the fall of that year.
He served as a member of the Fifty-seventh Congress as a populist having been elected on a fusion ticket, in which body his course was marked for its fidelity to principle and sincerity of purpose and was an honor to himself and to his constituency.
At the conclusion of his congressional term he returned to his home at Montpelier and returned to his practice of law. Mr. Glenn together with United States Senator Francis J Newlands of Nevada, then a congressman, was instrumental in having the Newlands irrigation bill passed which affected the whole United States, also Mr. Glenn while a member of congress voted for the construction of the Panama canal and he together with John R Brennan, of Montpelier, developed the phosphate mines of Idaho which was first discovered in the Rocky mountains.
Politically he has been an active adherent of the Democratic party and was one of the organizers of the Odd Fellows lodge at Soda Springs. Mr. Glenn has been thrice married. On March 17, 1870, he was married in Ballard county to Lucretia Stephens, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Stephens of that county. This this marriage came four sons, all born at Milburn, Kentucky; Thomas Isacc Glenn, born 17 Jan 1871 resides at Fayetteville, Arkansas is married and has three children. Ivy L Glenn was born 3 July 1874, married Sallie Moss of St Louis and now resides at Los Angeles California. They have one child. Francis J Glenn born January 1877 is married and resides at Montpelier with seven children. William T Glenn was born 7 June 1880, resides at Bisbee Arizona, is married and has four children. The wife and mother died January 24, 1893 at Montpelier.
The second marriage was to Nellie Severn Jones in Montpelier on January 2, 1895. She died 20 Jan 1910 leaving two sons, Orlan J born at Montpelier 27 Jan 1897 and George T born 2 Feb 1890 at Montpelier and deceased 24 Mar 1913. On January 22, 1912 at Salt Lake City, Utah, Mr. Glenn wedded Mrs. Alice O'Connor as this third wife.
Mr. Glenn is intensely loyal to Idaho, is alive
in every local interest which looks to the development of its natural resources
and holds the most optimistic faith in its future, believing that actual
development has but begun. He was left an orphan early in life and to face
unaided the vicissitudes of youth, but having character and courage he
surmounted such obstacles as fell in his way to success and has arisen in life
by means of his own resources and abilities. He is truly a self-made man,
one that Idaho numbers its strongest and most forceful.
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Thomas Louis Glenn died in Montpelier 18 Nov 1918 and was buried in the Montpelier City Cemetery.