Biography - Charles Glassford
CHARLES AUGUSTUS GLASSFORD is an intelligent and progressive farmer and stockraiser, who is an important factor in forwarding the rich agricultural interests of Johnson County. His well-equipped and well-stocked farm is one of the best managed and most desirable in Elvira Township. Our subject was born in St. Louis, Mo., November 6, 1853, the eldest son of Samuel and Juliet (Jones) Glassford, of whom an extended sketch appears elsewhere in this work.
Our subject was about six or seven years of age when his parents returned to Johnson County. He remained in St. Louis with an uncle that he might continue his education in its excellent schools, which he attended quite steadily some five years. He then came to live with his parents, and advanced his education by attendance at the public schools at Vienna, and later at the Southern Illinois College, at Carbondale, where he pursued a thorough course of study, which has been of benefit to him in his after career. When he left school he interested himself in farming for a time, and then, after clerking a few months, he bought a share in the store in which he had been employed. Not long after he threw up the mercantile business to resume farming, for which he had a decided taste. A little while later he again essayed a mercantile life, and for five years was engaged in the hardware business at Jonesborough. He continued in that line five years, and at the end of that time once more returned to his old pursuit, and has since devoted himself to general farming and stock-raising with complete success. His farm is well stocked with well-graded Shorthorn cattle, which he believes is the breed best adapted to the conditions and environments of this part of the country, and he raises Poland-China hogs in preference to any other kind. His farm, which had been given him a few years prior to his settlement on it, is in a fine state as to cultivation and improvements, and is advantageously located three miles northwest of Vienna. He has increased its area since it came into his possession by further purchase, and now has two hundred and twenty-eight and a-half acres of highly productive land.
Mr. Glassford was first married to Miss Sally Nash, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of Richard Nash. She died in 1889, leaving three children: Juliet, Samuel C. and Edith R. Our subject was married a second time, in 1891, this time to Miss Dora Slack, a native of this county, and a daughter of Wilford Slack. One child, George Francis, has blessed the union of our subject and his present wife.
Mr. Glassford possesses a well-trained, well-balanced mind and pleasant personal traits, and is ever found at the front in all movements to advance the highest interests of the community. His business habits are good, and he exercises sound judgment in the management of his affairs, and is justly prospering. In his political sentiments he sides with the Republicans. Religiously, his affiliations are with the Christian Church, of which he and his wife are members.
Extracted 16 Dec 2016 by Norma Hass from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, page 304.
