Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 828.

FIELDING S. GLANDON

     Deceased, who was a prosperous farmer of Yam Hill county, and a worthy
citizen of North Yam Hill, Oregon, was a native of Indiana, where he was born
October 17, 1816.  His father, James Glandon, was a native of North Carolina,
and of French descent, his ancestors having come to America in its early
colonial history.  James Glandon married Miss Sarah Albertson, a native of his
own State, and of Welsh ancestry, her progenitors also having been early
settlers of America.
     The subject of our sketch was the youngest of five children.  He was raised
in Indiana on a farm, when it was a new country, and educational advantages were
few.  He early found it necessary to work and earn money, and may thus be said
to have acquired his knowledge in the hard school of experience.  When a young
man, he worked at cutting and splitting rails, until he had accumulated $100,
and entered eighty acres of land, which by industry he cultivated and on which
he made valuable improvements, afterwards selling it for $600, which was
considered at that time a very good price.
     He then went to Morgan county, of the same State, where he was afterward,
in 1838, married to Miss Amy Wilson, an estimable lady, a native of Ohio and a
daughter of John and Melissa Wilson, worthy and prosperous people. 
     After his marriage, Mr. Glandon purchased 100 acres of choice cultivated
farming land, in a good, settled part of the State, for which he paid $1,000,
his wife having money to pay what he lacked.  They moved on to this land and
farmed it for eight years and built a comfortable house on it, and by continued
prosperity was able to purchase 250 acres more adjoining their original farm.
     They had six children, one of whom they lost.  They sold their land and
were preparing to move to Iowa, when the faithful wife and devoted mother died,
leaving five children to the care of her husband, the oldest of whom was nine
years of age, and the youngest five months.
     Thus, in 1849, he settled with his children in Keokuk county, Iowa, where
he worked and lived alone with the children for about a year, when he married
Pernina Briner, a native of Indiana and a daughter of Mr. William Briner.  Mr.
Glandon entered 1,400 acres of land in Iowa, on which he and his family resided
for five years, when he sold the property for $10,000.
     He then went to Sigourney, the county seat of Keokuk county, Iowa, where,
in company with some other gentlemen, he started a mercantile establishment, and
they did an extensive and lucrative business.  They trusted a great many people
for various goods, and when the panic of 1847 came the people were unable to
pay; all the banks failed and his business went down with the rest.  He had the
most money in the business and it was all required to settle the affairs of the
firm.
     Thus forced to begin life anew, and with a determination to rise again, he
started with his family, to which three more children had been added, for
Oregon.  They left Iowa April 13, 1864, with horses and mule teams and arrived
in Salem on August 23 of the same year.  They made the journey in safety,
unmolested by Indians or sickness, and on arriving at their destination rented a
small farm, beginning life again at the foot of the ladder.  Mr. Glandon did not
raise much the first year.
     The following year he moved to North Yam Hill in Yam Hill county, where he
purchased 460 acres of land, giving down a span of mules and a wagon, besides
his note for $2,500.  Then with the assistance of his two little boys, Harris
and William, he went to work, grubbed and cleared the land and farmed it for
five years, paying $1,000 in interest before he had it paid for.  He built large
and comfortable barns for his grain and stock, and made other valuable
improvements on his property, afterward selling for $12,000.  He again bought
some land, 545 acres, paying $4,000 for it, and after making some improvements
sold it for $5,000.
     He and his family, to which two children had been added in Oregon, then
went to California on a pleasure trip.  There he purchased a place near Santa
Rosa, which, in 1879, he sold and returned with his family to Oregon.  He
settled in Forest Grove, to afford his children an opportunity for securing a
good education.  Five of the children attended the college.  Later he removed to
Salem, where the children continued their studies.  He then moved to Polk
county, where he purchased 440 acres, paying for it $17,000.
     It was there a terrible tragedy was enacted, which has ever since saddened
the parents' lives.  While living happily there, their daughter Clara, who had
married Oscar Kelty, a son of a highly respectable farmer, with whom she had
lived two years, returned with her little children to her parents unable to
endure the abuse and cruel treatment of her husband.  One evening, about nine
o'clock, in the absence of Mr. Glandon, her husband came to the house and asked
to see her.  She came into the room, seating her children on the floor.  He
asked her if she would live with him, and she scarcely had time to reply when he
drew a revolver and shot her, and she fell dead on her children, the ball
passing through her body and burying itself in the piano!  He escaped but was
soon afterward arrested and lodged in jail; but the neighbors were so
exasperated at his cowardly and murderous deed that they took him out and hanged
him until he was dead.  No pen can portray the suffering of the bereaved
parents; the shock was a terrible one, from which they never recovered.
     They retired from the farm to North Yam Hill taking with them the two
little children of their daughter.  Most of Mr. Glandon's children reside in the
neighborhood.  His first child, Ellen Jane, died when three years of age; Sarah
died when eighteen years old; John married, died after a year, leaving a widow
and a child, whom the parents brought with them to Oregon, where the widow
married Hezekiah Bailey; Taylor died after the removal to Oregon, aged sixteen
years; Mary Ann married in Iowa and came to Oregon, where she died aged
twenty-two years; the youngest daughter by his first wife, Catharine Gosher,
died in her thirtieth year.  The children by his last wife are:  Harris, who
resides in Seattle; William H., who died in 1875, aged twenty-two years; Perry
C. who died in 1885, aged thirty years; Emma, wife of Norris Perkins, residing
in North Yam Hill; Russell, who is in Portland; Amanda, the wife of Asa McKern,
a prosperous merchant of North Yam Hill; Mathilda, wife of William Newhouse;
Seymour, living in Portland; Lizzie, who resides with her parents; and Warren,
now at school at home.
     Mr. Glandon was a Democrat in politics, although he never took a prominent
part in public affairs, preferring to give his attention to private matters.
     He was a worthy member of the Methodist Church, as also is his widow, to
the support of which they have liberally contributed.  This truly good man
passed away from earth December 1, 1892, at his home in North Yam Hill, leaving
a devoted family and many friends to mourn his loss.
     Such is the life of an industrious and honorable man, who has twice arisen
out of the indigence to wealth without assistance and without defrauding his
fellow-men.  Upright in his dealings, courteous in manner, and of a kindly
disposition, he enjoyed the unbounded esteem of all who knew him.
     

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in July 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.