James Glaspell

James Glaspell was an early settler of Davenport, Iowa.

He was born on April 7, 1789 (the same month as George Washington's inauguration) to Enos and Sarah English Glaspell in New Jersey. One of eight children, he became a farmer and a schoolmaster. He is believed to have arrived with his family in Davenport in August of 1839. Upon arriving, he joined the First Christian Church, which at the time met on 3rd and Main Street in the house of Mr. Eldridge, who owned the first store in Davenport. The church was soon moved to a carpentry shop on 4th and Brady streets, where rough boards were used as seats. In September of 1842 James Glaspell patented from the US Government the entire southwest corner of section 27 of Davenport township. In 1852 or '53 he sold part of this land to Nicholas Fejérváry, an exiled Hungarian revolutionary, whose daughter would eventually donate to the city to become Fejervary Park.