January 26, 2013 marked the 170th
anniversary of the birth of John Jacob Glessner in Zanesville, Ohio. Exactly one hundred years ago – January 26, 1913 – he recorded in
his wife’s journal his thoughts on turning 70:
The days of our years are three score years and ten and this
is my 70th birthday. I have
seldom thought of myself as old or as ever to be old, but have noted sometimes
that my family and friends speak of or act towards me as no longer young. My father died at 97, his father at 89, the
result of a fall from a fruit tree he was pruning. My mother died at 82, and her mother at past
97. I am not conscious of much decline
in bodily or mental vigor, and should my life extend to four score years or more may I hope that they
may not be years of labor and sorrow.
“We take no note of time but by its flight.” Perhaps we grow old with troubles, not with
years: hence my feeling of youth.
John
Glessner was in fact still leading the life of someone who did feel much
younger than 70, being actively involved as Vice President at International
Harvester and serving on a number of boards of cultural and philanthropic
organizations across the city. The same
journal entry that is quoted above indicates that during the week he and his
wife entertained friends for dinner at their home at least twice, received a
number of other guests to see Frances Glessner Lee’s miniature orchestra, took
their granddaughter to the opera on Wednesday, and attended the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra concerts on both Friday and Saturday. (An interesting side note is that the
weather 100 years ago seems to have been as warm as we are experiencing in
2013. John Glessner notes in the journal
that “Here the weather has been fine, several days this week being at least as
good as any in California
or Florida.”)
Glessner
lived well beyond 70, and well beyond the “four score years” he noted above. He died on January
20, 1936, six days before his 93rd
birthday. Although his social calendar
was a bit slower, following the death of his wife in October 1932, he was still
active until just a few weeks before his death, going to his office at
International Harvester regularly, and attending the Orchestra concerts.
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