Marvin Dean Glenn (1912 - 1991)

Born 19 Jun 1912 in Douglas, Cochise Co., Arizona, United States

Ancestors

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Biography

Cowboys and 'favorite son' honored ^[1]

Marvin Glenn was born June 19, 1912, in the Avenue Hotel in Douglas. His father, Ira Glenn, was from Texas and his mother from Norway.

The Glenns had homesteaded in Arizona in 1896, and the J Bar A Ranch was proved on in 1907.

Browning described Glenn as “a cowboy in every sense of the word.”

“From roping wild cattle to branding on the range, he raised and rode good rock-footed horses and mules, trailed up a lot of calf-killing lions, shod all his own horses and always tipped his hat to the ladies,” he told the audience.

Graduating from Douglas High School as an All-State track and football star, Glenn attended Lamson Business College in Phoenix, where he met Margaret Young.

She came into the Glenn family from a dairy family, knowing “the definition of hard work and long hours,” Browning said.

The couple spent their entire lives ranching on the J Bar A Ranch in Hunt Canyon, in the south end of the Chiricahua Mountains, raising their daughter, Janet, and their son, Warner, he told the audience.

Browning said the couple “lived the classic life of the American cattle rancher.”

“They hosted hunting clients, boarded young kids from the city in the summer months, gardened, butchered their own beef, and helped their neighbors.”

Throughout Glenn's life, the family raised Hereford cattle, as well as their own colts for ranch horses.

In 1936, Glenn got his first hound and began hunting mountain lions in self-defense, said Browning, explaining, “The lions were eating their calves and colts and in order to keep from ‘being eaten out of house and home,’ Marvin set the standard for hunting these calf-killing lions.”

Later, Glenn began guiding clients on lion hunt and, “for the rest of his life, ranchers throughout southern Arizona and northern Sonora, Mex. would call on him to take care of their calf killers.”

If you found a lion kill on your ranch and called them for help, Glenn and his son “would be in your front yard the next morning.”

“They would arrive with a pickup full of dogs, two mules and the hunt was on,” said Browning, adding, “There was never any hesitation or excuses; they were just there the next morning. It should be noted, that in the 60 years that Marvin hunted lions, he never charged a rancher a single dollar to hunt a killer lion.”

And Glenn could catch more than just mountain lions.

Browning told the story of how Glenn, Warner, and “a couple of cowboys from a neighboring ranch were trying to catch a stray bull that was running in one of the mesquite thickets on the Glenn place.”

“The brush was so thick it was impossible to get a throw, and they were going round and round. In the chasing that was going on, Marvin figured out that the bull kept getting away through the brush along one side of the corral, and always thinking, Marvin took a rope, built a loop, hung it between two mesquites on the bull’s escape route and tied it to the base of a big mesquite,” he told the audience.

“The next trip through the loop caught the bull by one horn and his head; the bull was captured, but you know the wreck was on. As anyone who has ever roped a bull outside of the corral knows the easy part is getting your rope on the bull and the hard part is getting your rope back.”

Browning went on to say, “Through the many years of enduring droughts, hauling water to cattle, doctoring screw-worms, digging ditches with a pick and shovel, packing salt and fencing materials on mules, seeing cattle die and cattle prices plunge and not recover, Marvin's faith never faltered.”

“A prayer was always said at meals with a reading from the Bible every morning after breakfast. Evenings would find Marvin picking a tune on one of his several guitars and singing in true cowboy style, or hunkered around a low slung table playing a mean game of ‘pitch’. Guests relished in these evening rituals, and they became traditions.”

“The Glenn ranches have played host to hundreds of guests ranging from city kids needing to have the homegrown ranch experience to ranchers from across the nation.”

Browning said he had the chance to talk with one of those kids, whose memories were vivid even after 50 years.

“We stayed in the bunk house and after supper we would go to the house and there was Marvin and Warner playing music,” he told Browning.

“The Glenns are wonderful people.”

“Marvin was a conservationist in his day and time. His love of the land and its inhabitants shone through in the way he managed his ranch, his cattle herd, and in the way he managed the wildlife that he hunted.”

Browning said Glenn was “happy to spend his afternoons weeding his immense garden and orchard, and harvesting a multitude of homegrown produce. You could find him shucking corn, teaching a kid from the city to hoe weeds or to play horseshoes, milking the ranch milk cow, feeding his mules and hounds and watching the monsoon clouds roll in.”

Glenn and wife Margaret “played a dominant role in the early years of the organization and structuring of the Cowbelles,” and were members in good standing of the Cochise Graham Cattle Growers Association.

Though Glenn died in 1991, “he left his stamp on the generations to follow,” said Browning, adding,

“The family still feels his presence daily in all that they do. He loved his family, his hunting dogs, hunting, playing the guitar and life in general. Now three generations later, the cowboy way of life is still in effect on the J Bar A Ranch.”

“Marvin Glenn was a rancher, professional hunting guide, cowboy, musician and a friend to all.”

Accepting on behalf of his late father, Warner said, “What a wonderful night.”

Referring to some of the evening’s other honorees, Warner said, “Dad was friends with Lyman and Allaire (Tenney), and the Klumps have been friends and neighbors for years.”

“This is a wonderful honor,” Warner told the audience.

Sources

Birth

Douglas, Cochise Co., Arizona, United States, "Arizona Births and Christenings, 1909-1917," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F3Y5-W5T : 12 December 2014), Marvin Sean Glenn, 19 Jun 1912; citing reference p 37 - 215; FHL microfilm 2,135,126.

Census

Cochise Co., Arizona, United States, "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VYW2-QNG : accessed 26 December 2016), Marvin Glenn, Supervisorial District 2, Cochise, Arizona, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 2-35, sheet 26A, line 20, family 437, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 100.

Douglas, Cochise Co., Arizona, United States, "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHBP-54C : accessed 26 December 2016), Marvin D Glenn in household of Ira D Glenn, Douglas, Cochise, Arizona, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 32, sheet 4A, line 19, family 85, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 55; FHL microfilm 2,339,790.

Lusk, Cochise Co., Arizona, United States, "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MCRF-5ZZ : accessed 26 December 2016), Marvin D Glenn in household of Ira D Glenn, Lusk, Cochise, Arizona, United States; citing ED 130, sheet 1A, line 4, family 1, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 47; FHL microfilm 1,820,047.

Death

"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V9P2-GPD : 20 May 2014), Marvin D Glenn, 10 Apr 1991; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

Footnotes

1. ↑ Cowboys and 'favorite son' honored, by Carol Broeder, October 14, 2015, http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/news/article_beab49f4-71f9-11e5-8287-f7be4ac2fd53.html