One House’s Story: The Glatfelter Family

This house’s history is associated with the family of a Pennsylvania-born Civil War veteran and his family of bricklayers who contributed to the construction of New Philadelphia, Ohio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Why Solomon Glatfelter (1838-1912) left his home in York County, Pennsylvania in the late 1850s and moved to New Philadelphia is not recorded. Solomon grew up on his father’s farm in Pennsylvania and somehow learned the trade of bricklaying before arriving in Tuscarawas County in the summer of 1860. A few months after his arrival he married Margaret Sliffe (1840-1926) in September 1860 and the couple setup housekeeping in New Philadelphia.

Solomon enlisted for three months in the 16th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment in April 1861 and, upon being discharged, reenlisted with the 6th Ohio Independent Sharpshooters. Solomon served with that unit for one year before returning home in the fall of 1863. A year later Solomon and Margaret welcomed a son named George W. Glatfelter (1864-1916). George and his other brothers learned bricklaying from their father as children and the family settled into a brick home on West Front Street next to the planing mill.

George Glatfelter married Louise Denzer (1863-1918) of Ragersville, Ohio in the fall of 1886 and two years later the couple were living on South Broadway in New Philadelphia. The couple had four children by 1896, three sons and one daughter, and for reasons unclear the family moved to New Madrid, Missouri. It was there that they were recorded as living in the 1900 census. Whatever took took them to Missouri did not last long and, by 1901, the family had returned to New Philadelphia. That same year they acquired a portion of Lot 48 fronting South Fifth Street (modern 2nd Street SW) and built a new home.

The Glatfelter house was likely built between late 1901 and into 1902 since the portion of lot 48 where the house sits was depicted as empty in the 1901 Sanborne Fire Insurance Map for the City of New Philadelphia. The house the family built was a wood-frame, two-story, cross-gabled home in the popular Queen Anne Style of architecture. When it was originally constructed it likely had much greater ornamentation on its gable ends, eaves and porch. A unique feature of this home is its unusually placed side porch as opposed to the more common wrap-around porch found on Queen Anne style homes. The family was recorded as living in the new home in the 1903 City Directory for New Philadelphia.

Around the same time that George and his family moved into the house on South 5th Street, Solomon Glatfelter went to live in the Ohio Soldier’s and Sailor’s Home in Sandusky, Ohio. Why he did not remain with his family in New Philadelphia is unclear but when he died his will left only $1 to each of his children, except George who received $100 for acting as Executor. Solomon left nothing to his wife preferring to bequeath the rest of his money to various churches and veterans groups. The family contested the will claiming that Solomon was not of sound mind and body when he drafted it but whether they were successful or not is unclear.

George and Louise continued to live in the house on South 5th Street for only a few more years after the death of Solomon Glatfelter. George Glatfelter died in November 1916 after a weeks-long illness, his cause of death given as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart). Louise only outlived her husband by a year-and-a-half, passing away in the summer of 1918 from cancer. Two of the couples’ sons lived in the home for several years after Louise’s death. George and Louise Glatfelter are buried in the the East Avenue Cemetery in New Philadelphia, Ohio.

© Noel B. Poirier, 2023.