James Glover (headstone)
*James Nettle Glover was born on this date in 1793. He was a Black abolitionist and soldier.
Born into slavery on a plantation in Port Tobacco, Maryland, he was one of three known War of 1812 veterans buried in Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery. He was the grandson of John Glover, one of four brothers who came from England with Lord Baltimore.
When the War of 1812 began, James Glover enlisted in the Army and attained the rank of Sergeant. Seven years later, in 1819, Glover, his parents, and all his siblings moved to St. Louis, Missouri. After they arrived in Missouri, all the Glover siblings settled on plantations or large farms as slave labor. He met and married Elizabeth Dozier, formerly from Louisville, Kentucky, on September 9, 1821.
In 1845, Glover moved to Grant County, Wisconsin, because of his opposition to slavery. Soon after, his sister, Nellie, and her family joined him and his wife. Three of his other siblings migrated to the Oregon Territory four years later. After the American Civil War in 1870, Elizabeth Glover returned to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where she died a short time later.
Shortly after her death, Glover moved to Minneapolis to live with his daughter, Sophie, and her husband, George Jodon. James Nettle Glover died at their home on May 31, 1873, from paralysis and apoplexy at 79. Mr. Glover's grave has two markers. The first was an upright marble military marker, which was broken but tipped to protect it from further damage. The other is a flat granite marker installed in 1942. James Nettle Glover II, his nephew and namesake, founded Spokane, Washington.
