Representative Elijah Glendenning View All Years

HON. ELIJAH GLENDENNING.

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appointed to prepare a memorial to the memory of the late Honorable Elijah Glendenning of Lineville who was a pioneer citizen of Wayne county and an honored member of the House of Representatives in the Tenth and Sixteenth General Assemblies, beg leave to respectfully submit the following:

Dr. Elijah Glendenning was born in Rush county, Indiana, August 31, 1831. He was the son of John and Elizabeth Glendenning. His grandfather, Henry Glendenning, was a soldier in the War of 1812. His great-grandfather, being a native of Scotland and coming to America when a young man, was a continental soldier in the War of the Revolution.

Elijah Glendenning emigrated with his parents to Gentry county, Missouri, in 1841. He was reared on a farm, receiving his education at the country schools of his neighborhood and at Grand River College at Edinburg, Mo. After leaving college he was an itinerant minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Missouri for three years. He gave up his ministerial duties in 1853 on account of failing health. In March of 1856 he was united in marriage with Miss Lucinda J. Carlisle. He began the

study of medicine with Dr. David Macey of Bethany, Mo. In the fall of 1856 he located in Lineville where he has since lived. He later read medicine under Dr. J. W. Burns of Pleasanton, Iowa. His preceptor having died, he was forced into practice before completing his medical course, but finally graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1865.

Twice he was elected to represent Wayne county in the State Legislature; in 1864 to the Tenth General Assembly and in 1876 to the Sixteenth General Assembly. He was vice-president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Lineville from the beginning of the institution until the time of his death.

Dr. Glendenning answered the final summons at 6 o’clock Thursday evening, December 17, 1908.

“Ne’er to the mansions where the virtuous rest,

Since their foundation, came a worthier guest

Nor to the bowers of bliss was e’er conveyed

A nobler spirit or a gentler shade.”

Such in epitome is the story of Dr. Elijah Glendenning’s life. But those who knew him best will not be content with so brief an outline as the biographer might be disposed to leave upon the records of the state.

Elijah Glendenning came to Iowa when the young state needed men who were energetic and had faith in her possibilities and from the day that his eyes first looked across the fertile prairies, he was content to take his chances with the goddess of Fame and Fortune. For nearly half a century he had been a conspicuous figure among his thousands of friends in this community with whom he had been intimately associated as a physician and a minister of the Gospel, in whose homes he was always welcome and had ever been a sympathizing friend and a wise counselor. And to all who knew him his stainless private and public life was an inspiration and his high character only to be emulated. To few men are given the opportunities of doing good as was given to Dr. Glendenning and fewer still who would have used them to their utmost so nobly and unselfishly. On all public questions and on matters involving the interest and welfare of the country and the community, he seemed to intuitively divine the right and his influence was widely felt. To those who were seeking for truth and right, what Dr. Glendenning believed and said was enough for them and he was seldom wrong. He was an emphatic Republican and a partisan of the pronounced type and loyalty to his country was the dominating principle of his life. He was an honored Mason, having attained to the Royal Arch degree. He was a leader, counselor and trusted friend of all the people and he enjoyed the respect and held the confidence of the leading men of his county and state. In his ideal home he was the central figure, a gentle leader, guide and advisor, rather than the arbitrary master and his death was the rending of tenderest ties of love and affection and those who knew him best, loved him most.

“His life was gentle, and the elements

So mixed in him that nature might stand up

And say to all the world, ‘This is a man.’”

Resolved: That the foregoing memorial be adopted by the House, entered upon the Journal and an engrossed copy thereof be sent to the family of the deceased, and further, that a copy thereof be sent to the Lineville Tribune.

W. P. ALLRED,

WM. WELDEN,

GEO C. CALKINS,

Committee.