George Glenn, black trail driver, son of Wash Glenn, he was born a slave, in Virginia, on March 8, 1850.* He was raised on the ranch of Robert B. Johnson of Columbus & trained in ranching activities & as a trail cook. After the Civil War & being freed, Mr. Glenn stayed on at the Johnson ranch as a cowhand. In the spring of 1870 he accompanied Mr. Johnson on a cattle drive to Abilene, Kansas. At the Red River, when a fresh group of cowhands displaced the original ones, Johnson & Glenn continued with them to Abilene where they sold the herd. Johnson fell ill & died at age 36 in Abilene in July 1870. Glenn had his employer embalmed & buried in a metal casket there. The following September he decided to bring Johnson's body back to Texas for burial & had the casket disinterred & placed in a wagon. Reportedly, Glenn traveled alone with Johnson's body for forty-two days across three states, to arrive in Columbus in November 1871. Afterwards, he didn't continue as a cowhand but maintained a lifelong friendship with his former employer's nephew, Texas Ranger & cattleman John Edwards Folts. Glenn's death certificate lists his occupation as "laborer." He was honored as one of the handful of black members of the Old Trail Drivers Association at the 1924 and 1926 annual meetings. He married Lucy Conner [born in Texas, but her parents were from Virginia] on December 25, 1872, & they had four sons (Frank, Albert, Andrew & Charles)*. Mr.Glenn lived the rest of his life in Glidden, where he owned a homestead. He died there of pneumonia on November 28, 1931, and was buried in Columbus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cattleman, June 1926, January 1932. J. Frank Dobie, "The Old Trail Drivers," Country Gentleman, February 14, 1925. Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones, Negro Cowboys (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1965). J. Marvin Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas (2 vols., San Antonio: Jackson Printing, 1920, 1923; 4th ed., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cattleman, June 1926, January 1932. J. Frank Dobie, "The Old Trail Drivers," Country Gentleman, February 14, 1925. Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones, Negro Cowboys (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1965). J. Marvin Hunter, Trail Drivers of Texas (2 vols., San Antonio: Jackson Printing, 1920, 1923; 4th ed., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985).
*Source: U.S. Federal Census, 1880