It all began on the Glidden Homestead at 921 W. Lincoln Hwy., DeKalb. It was reported that Joseph began searching for a better fencing method after his wife, Lucinda, complained about livestock getting into the yard. Lucinda, in her own later recollections, told about her large wire hairpins that began disappearing from a milk glass dish on her dresser during the winter of 1872-73. She questioned their 20-year-old daughter, Elva Frances, who denied taking them. Joseph later admitted to using them for his new fence idea.

When the weather improved, Joseph purchased a reel of smooth fence wire from Isaac Ellwood's hardware store and began experimenting in the barn or barnyard. At one point, he tried to form a piece of wire into a small coil that would fit reasonably tight on a single strand of wire. After being struck with a hammer, it would tightly clinch around the wire and stay in place.

However, with only pliers and tools, Joseph found it difficult to produce a coil small enough with sufficient uniformity for his needs. He took his problem to his long-time friend, the blacksmith Phineas Vaughan. Together, they took apart an old coffee mill and reassembled it, utilizing the principle of a moving sleeve and a lug. With a turn of the crank, the machine produced a small uniform-sized coil.

The site of Vaughan's original blacksmith shop downtown DeKalb (north side between Third and Fourth streets) is marked with a horseshoe embedded in the concrete sidewalk. Local historians believe it is an original horseshoe from Vaughan's shop.