William M. Glenn, of Tribune, state senator from the Thirty-eighth district, was born at Bloomfield, Iowa, Dec. 31, 1860. He is a son of the late John B. Glenn, one of the most prominent and respected pioneer citizens of Harper county, Kansas, who died at Harper, May 22, 1911. John B. Glenn was born in Gallia county, Ohio, April 14, 1828, and in 1852 removed to Bloomfield, Iowa, where he conducted a drug store and also engaged in the banking business until his removal to Kansas, in 1877. He located in Harper county, where he became prominently identified with its settlement and development, and was one of the founders of and built the first house in the town of Harper, now one of the most thriving towns of that county. He served as county surveyor a number of years.

William M. Glenn was reared principally in Iowa and was educated in the public schools of Bloomfield and at the Southern Iowa Normal. He came to Kansas with his parents, at the age of sixteen. During vacations he worked at the printing trade for a time, but early decided upon the profession of law as his vocation, and was admitted to the bar in Harper county, in 1885. In 1887 he removed to Greeley county, where he became one of the organizers of the town of Tribune, the county seat. He there engaged in the practice of law and also in the real estate business, in both of which he has been successful. His residence in Greeley county began with an active participation in local affairs, in the course of which he gained the thorough confidence of his fellow citizens. A devoted Republican and well qualified for the position, he was elected representative from Greeley county to the state legislature, in 1892, and was reëlected to that office, in 1894, his first session as a member of the celebrated "Douglass House," when they had the legislative war. In 1908 he was nominated for state senator, over three other candidates, after a hard fight. His district is the Thirty-eighth, which is composed of eighteen of the southwestern counties, and he was duly elected and his career as a legislator has been conspicuous, both for ability and usefulness. He served as chairman of the committee on legislative apportionment and was the author of the senate bill reapportioning the state into representative districts, which bill became a law and gave to his senatorial district five additional representatives. He also served as a member of the judiciary committee, the committee on ways and means, the committee on state affairs, and the educational committee. He was largely instrumental in securing the enactment of the senate judiciary bill, which abolished drugstore liquor permits and made prohibition absolute, so far as state authority is concerned. He is also the author of the present weights and measure law of Kansas. He has been city treasurer of Tribune fifteen years and was a member of the school board ten years. In 1898 he became owner and editor of the "Greeley County Republican," of Tribune, the only paper in the county, and is still engaged in its publication. He is also vice-president and a director in the First State Bank of Tribune. Mr. Glenn is unmarried and owns and occupies one of the most modern residences in Greeley county, his only sister, Mrs. Madara, presiding as hostess. Fraternally Mr. Glenn is very prominently affiliated with a number of different orders. He was grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Kansas, in 1896 and 1897, and was the representative from Kansas to the Sovereign Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in 1899 and 1900. From 1908 to 1911 he was state consul of the Modern Woodmen of America and was a delegate to the Head Camp of that order at Milwaukee, in 1905, at Peoria, Ill., in 1908, and at Buffalo, N. Y., in 1911. He is also a member of the Masonic order, the Knights of Pythias, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.