Aaron J. Glathart

Aaron Glathart was of Swiss heritage. His parents emigrated from Switzerland and settled in Hancock County, Ohio, in 1828. His father was a stone mason and was one of the men who helped build the Erie Canal.

Aaron was the third youngest of eleven children. He grew up on his parents farm in Hancock County, and at age 15 went west to Lawrence, Kansas, where his older brother Jerry was operating a bakery and provision store. Aaron immediately went into his brother’s business and in 1859 was taken into partnership. In the early part of 1860 the business was sold and Aaron returned to Hancock County. That same year his father died.

In the following year, the Civil War began and Aaron, aged 17, enlisted. The war consumed the next four years of his life, including being a prisoner of war. At the end of the war, he was broken in health. He returned to Hancock County, but soon afterward went to Kansas and sought to regain his health by open air treatment, camping out on the prairies for three months. 

He again went to Lawrence and went into the auctioneering and second-hand furniture business. A year later he bought a farm near Lawrence where he remained there some six years. Around this time he married Jennie Strother and their first four children were born in Kansas.

Despite being actively involved in the Lawrence community, Aaron and his young family moved back to Hancock County, Ohio, in 1874 where he and his wife lived out their lives. Aaron farmed until 1897 when he retired and moved into the nearby town of Finlay. He was a proud and honored member of Stoker Post No. 54, Grand Army of the Republic. In politics he was a Republican. He did not associate with any religious body.