GEORGE GLADFELDER.
By reason of a life of useful and worthy labor along progressive lines, influenced by high standards of integrity and honor, George Gladfelder has gained the unqualified respect and esteem of all with whom he has been associated. Moreover, he has another claim to a place in the public regard, for his name stands high on the long list of men who fifty years ago sacrificed their personal interests in order to serve their country during the dark days of the Civil war. Mr. Gladfelder is a native of Ohio, born in Noble county, July 25, 1836, and is a son of William and Mary (Cline) Gladfelder, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Virginia. Their marriage occurred in Ohio, to which state both had removed in childhood. The father was a carpenter by trade and attained a fair degree of success in this occupation until 1853, when he left Ohio and came to Iowa, purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of land in Chariton township, Appanoose county, upon which he resided until his death in 1881. His wife survived him for some time, passing away in 1888.
George Gladfelder was reared at home and acquired his education in the public schools. As a youth he learned the carpenter's trade under his father's instruction and at the age of twenty began his independent career. He worked at carpentering until one year after the outbreak of the Civil war, enlisting on August 27, 1862, in Company C, Thirty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He served with courage and ability until the close of hostilities and received his honorable discharge at Duvall Bluff, Arkansas, on the 24th of August, 1865. He arrived at his home in Iowa on September 11, of the same year, and resumed carpentering and building work, in which he continued until 1881, meeting with a gratifying degree of success. Mr. Gladfelder has a record of thirty years' activity in this occupation, his work being interrupted only by his period of military service. In 1872 he bought from the heirs their interest in the estate of his father-in-law's farm, upon which he has made his residence since that time, and has given his attention to its further development, meeting with the success which always attends earnest and well-directed labor.
In 1861 Mr. Gladfelder was united in marriage to Miss Tamsey J. Callen, a daughter of Edward Callen, who came to Appanoose county from Tennessee in 1842. Mr. and Mrs. Gladfelder became the parents of three children: George R., who has passed away; Brittie, the wife of C. C. Phillips, of Appanoose county; and Harry C., who makes his home in Omaha, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Gladfelder are devout adherents of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Gladfelder is a member of the board of trustees. He gives his allegiance to the republican party and for four years served as assessor, discharging his official duties in an able and conscientious manner. He is especially interested in educational affairs and has a record of twenty-three years' continuous service as secretary of the school board. He keeps in touch with his comrades of fifty years ago through his membership in the Samuel Sumner Post, No. 398, G. A. R., of which he has served two terms as commander and is now in his tenth year as adjutant. Mr. Gladfelder has passed the seventy-sixth milestone on life's journey and can look back upon many years of active, worthy and useful work. His fellow citizens esteem and respect him as a man whose labors have been a powerful force in development and whose life has been made successful by reason of talent and ability, given to honorable causes and never unworthily used.
Source: Past and Present of Appanoose County, Iowa, Volume II, by L. L. Taylor, published by the S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1913; Pgs. 322-323
