Armstrong County PA Archives Biographies.....Glenn, Hon. Archy. D. January 30, 1842 - ????
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Source: History of Armstrong County, Chicago: Waterman, Watkins and Co. 1883.
Author: Robert Walter Smith, Esq.

  ...John Glenn, the progenitor of the Glenn family in 
Armstrong county and the great-grandfather of A. D. Glenn, 
came from Ireland when eighteen years of age and settled in 
Center county, Pennsylvania.  He married Mary Borland by 
whom he had two daughters, Ann and Mary, and four sons, 
Robert, John, James and Joseph.   The latter, of whose 
family we shall here give a brief history, was born February 
10, 1787, and was married, date unknown, to Mary Thompson 
who was born the same day as himself.  The fruits of this 
union were three children, Archy, William Turner and Mary 
Ann.   In 1818 he moved to Indiana county where he remained 
for three years, after which he located near Mahoning creek 
in Wayne township, Armstrong county, about two miles from 
Dayton.  On this farm to which he came while the region was 
almost a wilderness, he lived until his death in April, 
1852, seeing the country cleared up, the game destroyed and 
villages spring up all around him.  He was a strongly 
religious man, a member of the Methodist church, and 
particularly zealous in Sunday-school work, superintending 
at different times many schools at quite a distance from 
home, one of them being on Pine creek, twelve miles away.  
His family were all of the same religious faith as himself.  
After his death his wife lived with her children until her 
own demise in 1866.

  Of the three children, Archy, the father of A. D. Glenn, 
was married January 28, 1828, to Miss Susannah B., daughter 
of Abraham and Elizabeth Coursin, who lived near Curlsville, 
Clarion county.  William Turner was married to his cousin, 
Mary Jane Thompson, in 1849, and died in the army in eastern 
Virginia in 1864.  His widow and family still reside in 
Milton, this county.  Mary Ann was married in 1856 to Isaac 
Hopkins, who died in December, 1882.  She and her family now 
live at West Decatur, Clearfield county, Pennsylvania.

  Archy Glenn first settled at Rockport in Clarion county, 
but subsequently lived at various places in Armstrong 
county, among them Milton, Eddyville, and Putneyville, where 
he now resides.  He was elected to the office of county 
commissioner in 1849, and served efficiently and acceptably 
to the people for three years.  This is the only public 
office of consequence he ever held except that of jury 
commissioner to which he was elected in 1873, and from which 
he resigned before the expiration of the term because his 
private business conflicted with its duties.  He has held 
various township offices and has been justice of the peace 
for about fifteen years.

  While Mr. and Mrs. Glenn were living at Camp Run about 
three miles from Dayton, their son A. D. was born, January 
30, 1842.  He attended the public school at Milton, the 
Dayton Union Academy and the Iron City College.  He engaged 
in teaching when between fifteen and sixteen years of age, 
taking a place in Milton which the directors had left 
vacant.  Subsequently he taught in Red Bank and Brady's Bend 
townships in this county, West Mahoning in Indiana county.  
In the latter he taught four consecutive terms of seven 
months each.  When he ceased teaching he was principal of 
the Woods Run school in Allegheny City.  In 1861 he and all 
of his brothers living, namely, Abraham R., Elijah,      C. 
T., James A., and William T., went into the Union army.  The 
first two named and our subject went into Co. B, 78th regt. 
Pa. Vol. Inf.; James A. into Co. I, 62nd regt., and William 
T. into the 48th regt.  By the spring of 1862, the 
vicissitudes of war had so separated the family that no two 
of them were within a hundred miles of each other.  On 
account of continued sickness, A. D. Glenn was discharged 
from duty, February 16, 1863.  William T. was also 
discharged the same spring for the same cause, but 
re-enlisted in the spring of 1864 in Co. M, 2nd Pa. Cav., 
and on account of inflammatory rheumatism was unable to get 
home until six months after the close of the war.  
Subsequently he enlisted in Co. L, 2nd U. S. Cav., and spent 
several years in the Rocky Mountain region. He returned much 
broken down, and died at Eddyville in April, 1875.  The 
other brothers passed through three years' service, James A. 
being badly wounded in the battle of the Wilderness.  A 
brother-in-law and two uncles were also in the service.

  Returning to Mr. A. D. Glenn's civil life we find that 
when he ceased teaching he traveled as the representative of 
Wilson, Hinkle & Co. (now an Antwerp, Bragg & Co.), of 
Cincinnati, one of the largest schoolbook publishing houses 
in the United States.  He remained with this house from 
April, 1868, to July 1, 1870, having his headquarters 
successively at Pittsburgh, Crestline (Ohio), Cleveland and 
Meadville.  After quitting the agency he was engaged with 
his father in the mercantile business at Eddyville.  In 1872 
he was elected over six competitors to the office of county 
superintendent of public schools, to which he was re-elected 
with comparatively little opposition in 1875 and in 1878, 
serving nine years - the longest continuous term served by 
any incumbent since the establishment of the office.  At his 
first re-election the salary was increased from $1,000 to 
$1,200 per annum.  Mr. Glenn's services were very valuable 
in the way of elevating the standard of public instruction, 
and were generally so recognized, a fact which was attested 
by the offer of a fourth election, which however, he 
declined.  He was editor of the Kittanning Union Free Press 
from June, 1879, to April, 1881, and ably conducted that 
well known journal.  He served as D. D. G. M. of the I. O. 
O. F. in Armstrong county for two terms and was urged by 
several lodges to longer continue in that capacity.  He was 
nominated without opposition by the republicans of Armstrong 
county for the assembly in 1882, and was elected to the 
legislature by a majority of 180 votes, while his colleague 
on the ticket for the same office had a much smaller 
majority.  The career of Mr. Glenn which has carried him to 
the halls of legislation now, when he has but scarcely 
reached the prime of his manhood, will doubtless be fruitful 
of greater successes in the future.  At least the beginning 
augurs well for his filling a broad field of usefulness and 
attaining the eminence that his intellectual and moral 
merits entitle him to. Whatever he has thus far attained is 
traceable to his good character and to his own exertions.  
Enjoying only limited advantages in his boyhood he obtained, 
however, a thorough education, and has made his way in the 
world by close application and energetic, manly endeavor.

  The family of Archy and Susannah (Coursin) Glenn consisted 
of six sons and one daughter.  A. D. being next to the 
youngest.  Their names in order of birth are as follows:  
John Coursin, Abraham R., Elijah, C. T., James Alexander, 
Mary Jane, Archy D. and William Turner.   John C. died 
unmarried in Illinois in 1855.  Abraham R. married Sarah E. 
McCurdy in 1853, and now lives in Smicksburg, Indiana 
county.  Elijah married Louisa Allen in 1858.  He died in 
February, 1871, and his widow and family now live in Dayton. 
 James A. was married to Mary Broombaugh in 1875, and now 
lives in Eddyville.   Mary J. was married in 1857 to John S. 
Oyler, and now lives near Murrysville, Westmoreland county.

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