THE GLANN FAMILY

Sacramento County

Biographies

THE GLANN FAMILY

THE GLANN FAMILY.--The given name of the first progenitor of this family in America is not preserved in their traditions. About a generation before the Revolution, a Scotch sailor, who was also part owner of the vessel in which he sailed, came to Turk Island for a cargo of rock-salt for the Liverpool market. He is said to have been also possessed of a title to an island named Vincent Island, in the ocean; the name thereof may have been changed. Be this as it may, the risks of the great deep soon swept away not only his prospective lordship of an island, but also his actual property, which was all aboard his vessel, and seriously jeopardized his life. While engaged in shipping the cargo, and when the vessel was almost fully laden, Mr. Glann was taken sick with a fever and became delirious. Then a terrific storm arose which wrenched the ship from her moorings, and compelled the throwing overboard of the cargo. Every sail and mast and spar was swept away, and only the hull of the vessel and the lives of the crew were saved. They drifted about for many weeks, when they were finally picked up by a vessel bound for New York, and when they landed in that city Mr. Glann found himself in possession of a single groat! Then and there he soon came to the conclusion that he had seen enough of the vicissitudes of a seafaring life, and investing his groat in biscuits he pushed toward the country in quest of work. At Kingsbridge he fell in with a Dutch farmer who set him to threshing, and he wielded the flail with such energy and success that he got a permanent job. After three years he married a daughter of his employer, and continued to work for his father-in-law until he was able to run a farm on his own account. He lived and died near Kingsbridge. Of his offspring, the branch of his family with which history of Sacramento County is concerned, have knowledge only of two sons, — James and John Glann (or Glenn, as the name, it is thought, was then written) were young men when the war of the Revolution broke out, and both enlisted, serving under Generals Greene and Washington. They were in the battle of Long Island, and there John was killed, and buried in the sand. James fought through the war, and took up a “soldier’s right” on the line which divides Sussex County, New Jersey, from Orange County, New York, as the chief market town of the district. This was the homestead, and on this he settled permanently after the war. He married into a German family named Catlin. It was he, as is thought most probable, that changed the name to Glann, as the Kingsbridge branch still write it Glenn. His son, Nathaniel, learned from him that he was induced by an old Scotch schoolmaster to make the change, as being more in accord with the old Scotch or Gaelic tongue. Glann is, in fact, the exact equivalent of the English Glenn, from the common name of glen, a narrow defile or valley. A hero of the Revolution would naturally be glad to find a reason so legitimate for breaking off all association of his name with his late enemy and the subjugator of his race as well. He died at about the age of eighty and his wife at about 100. Mr. And Mrs. James Glann were the parents of nine children: William, James, John, who became a school-teacher and lived to a good age; Nathaniel (see below); Vincent, who died in 1885, aged about eighty-eight years; Nancy, who married Ralph Van Houten, a farmer of Steuben County, New York; Jennie married James C. Rowley, a blacksmith, near the old homestead; Hannah married David Mercereau, owner of one of the largest farms on the Susquehanna, near Oswego, New York; Rhoda married Martin Wilson, a farmer, who afterward became the owner of the old soldier’s homestead. Nathaniel Glann, the third son of James, was born in 1793, and remained with his father until he was of age. He received a good district-school education, partly under his brother John. He then went to work on his own account, and at about the age of twenty-two settled on a farm adjoining that of his brother John, in Steuben County, near Hammondsport, New York. While on a visit to his uncle, Nathaniel Catlin, at Oswego, he became acquainted with the Mercereau family, and in 1817 he was married to Miss Catherine Mercereau, daughter of one of the well-know New York families of that name. He was a blacksmith by trade, and was living on Staten Island at the time of the Revolution. He afterward moved to Oswego, and was over ninety years old when he died. His wife, who was English by birth or descent, lived to the age of 106 years. About 1832 Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Glann, with six children, left Hammondsport, in the Indian-summer time, with the accompaniment of the first flurry of snow, for the great West, by way of Penn Yan, Dansville and Buffalo. There they engaged passage for family and wagon on the steamer Henry Clay. At the moment of departure, Mr. Glann, with his horses and one boy, were refused passage on the claim that the steamer was already too heavily laden. With the rest of his family and goods aboard, he and his boy were compelled to go by land. The family put ashore at Port Huron, where they were soon rejoined by the father and son, but too late in the season to reach their intended destination in Illinois. He concluded to proceed to Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, where Thomas Baker, formerly of Hammondsport, had settled some time before. Arrived there, he rented a house and obtained work for himself and two of his boys, from Mr. Baker. In 1833 he moved to one of Mr. Baker’s farms, and there raised a crop. Meanwhile Mrs. Glann’s brothers, Henry and Corneille Mercereau, had moved from Oswego, New York, to Toledo, Ohio, where Mr. Glann visited them, and being pleased with the location he also bought land there. In the spring of 1834 he moved to Toledo, traveling over the forty miles of black swamp, rendered almost impassable by the movements of the Ohio militia, then engaged in the “Ohio and Michigan war.” Arrived in Toledo, he fitted up an old vacant house on the farm of Henry Mercereau, for a temporary home, and put in a crop on his own farm of eighty acres. He also rented the farm of Corneille Mercereau, who had gone into business in Toledo, which he kept for two years. In 1834 he bought forty acres about a mile away, and 160 acres some twenty miles distant. In 1835 he built a house on his original eighty acres. In 1844 he bought 160 acres across the road from his place, and in 1850 he built a larger and better home. Mrs. Glann died in 1858, aged sixty-one. Mr. Glann died November 27, 1875, aged eighty-two. Mr. And Mrs. Nathaniel Glann were the parents of ten children, of whom seven were born near Hammondsport: James, born about 1818, was first married to Miss Chloe Ann Lewis, who died without issue; his second wife was Susan Poseland, a native of England, but whom he had two boys, William and Archibald. Ann Elizabeth, born about 1820, married William Cheney, a carpenter and builder of Toledo; they were the parents of Calferna and Elizabeth Cheney, both married. Their mother died in 1852. Henry, born about 1823, was married to Miss Eliza Layburn, an American of English parentage. They are the parents of Nathaniel P., of the firm of Bick & Glann, boot and shoe dealers, of Toledo; and of Alice, who was married to Ferd Haughten, a farmer, and who have sons and daughters. Vincent (see below). Calphurnia died about 1830, aged three years. David, born about 1829, was married to Ann Poseland, a sister of Mrs. James Glann. They are the parents of one son and one daughter. Daniel (see below). William, born in 1833, near Tiffin, Ohio, was accidentally killed with his own gun, while hunting, aged about twenty. Peter (see below). Catherine, born about 1838, married David Upton. They were for many years residents of this county, but are now living in Monterey. Their children are: Mary, William Cassius and Myrtle. Mary is now Mrs. William Nelms, and the mother of two daughters; William C., is married to Miss Minnie Garrett, and they have one daughter. All the children of Nathaniel Glann received the limited district school education usual in their school days.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 653-655. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.