Biography published by the Missouri Historical Society, in the preface of "Letters From The Dakota Territory, 1865" (Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society, Volume XVIII, Number 2 -- January, 1962)

"Noah Miller Glatfelter was born in Pennsylvania in 1837, the son of Jonathan Glatfelter (1803-51) and the former Elizabeth Miller (1808-85), and a descendent of Casper Glatfelter, who came to Pennsylvania from Switzerland in 1743. Noah attended school in Millersville, Pennsylvania, and for a time taught in Lebanon. He then began the study of medicine. On September 12, 1862, he enlisted in the Union army, but was excused from military service to complete his medical studies. He received his degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1864, and was shortly commissioned by the President as assistant surgeon of the United States Volunteers. About this time he married Mary Hegarty of Philadelphia, who accompanied him while he was stationed at Alexandria and City Point in Virginia.

"At the end of the Civil War he was sent to Dakota Territory to serve as army surgeon at the Crow Creek Agency. His wife, fearful of the wilderness life, went to her mother's home to await his return. The letters were written while Noah was on this assignment. They tell their own story, and no attempt has been made at annotation, other than to supply, where possible, the first names of the people he met on his travels.

"Dr. Glatfelter was mustered out of the service early in 1867, and he and his wife settled in St. Louis, where his mother's brother, Eli Miller, was in partnership with Henry Seckman in the carpenters and builders trade. Noah maintained a successful medical practice, and continued the interest in botany evinced in his letters from Dakota Territory. Several of his botanical articles were published in the Transactions of the Academy of Science in St. Louis, in which he was very active. He also became the family historian, publishing in 1901 "The Record of Casper Glatfelter...and of His Descendents." He fathered seven children, six of them girls. Two of his daughters, Edith E. and Alice M.M. Glatfelter, became St. Louis school teachers*. His son, Herbert, became an engineer. Noah died April 2, 1911, from injuries suffered when he fell from a ladder while replacing a fence. His correspondence and family papers are now the property of the Missouri Historical Society."
*Three -- His daughter Lisbeth was the first teacher of "Domestic Science" (home economics) in Saint Louis.