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by George Washington Freeman July 25, 1932 |
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As I am the oldest Freeman living (I am now in my 83rd year) and have a good memory I will give you some facts regarding the line of Freeman's from which you sprang. I met up with a Freeman in San Francisco some years ago. He was a well read man who occupied a good position in a large Mercantile house. He had made a study of the Freeman Tree. He told me that early in the Seventeenth Century three brothers emigrated from England. One settled in New England, one in Virginia and one in the extreme South, perhaps in Louisiana. Your Great Grandfather, John Freeman, settled in Virginia and later emigrated to Tennessee. His wife was a Jackson. She was of Scotch Irish extraction, remotely related by ancestry to T. J. Jackson, known as Stonewall Jackson, who was killed during the Civil War. John Freeman had six sons and two daughters. The sons' names were: John, Jackson, Joel, Joshua, James, and William. The daughters' names were: Matilda (who died in infancy) and Mary Ann. Of John, the oldest of my father's brothers, I cannot tell you anything. Joel, Joshua and James came to Iowa prior to 1840 and settled in Henry County in the South Eastern part. All of my fathers' brothers were married except Uncle James. When I was quite a small boy my father and mother used to drive from our home which was on the main highway ten miles west of the county seat of Jefferson County, Fairfield to Glascow, Henry County, and I played with my Uncles' Joel and Joshua's children. My Uncles' Joel and Joshua came to California and made a short stay. When they returned home they moved to Knox County, Missouri, in the North Eastern part of the state and then I lost trace of them. Uncle Jackson and family made a short stay in Iowa and then went back to Tennessee where I lost trace of him. My fathers' sister, Mary Ann, born and raised in Tennessee and married a man named John Lowe there and came to Iowa in 1857. They had five sons and one daughter. The sons' names were: John, James, Alonzo, Richard and Jean. The daughters name was Mellissa. Alonzo was born March 27, 1853 and died here in Richmond, California, June 14, 1931. He was the last one of the family and died at the age of 78. Their mother met with a tragic death. She left her husband and met her death among strangers. The history of the Lowe family is included in outline form. My father, William, went to Iowa in 1840 and engaged in various kinds of work. He ran a distillery, burnt lime and camped out while doing it. He specialized on breaking up of prairie land. He ran two teams and received $1.25 per acre. He made quite a bit of money. He was married twice. His wife's maiden name was Sarah Churchman of Jefferson County, Tennessee. They were married in 1835. She bore him three children whose names were: Joel Edward, James Allen and Matilda. My mother's maiden name was Clarrissa Jane Hughell. They were married on August 10, 1848. She was a widow when she married William Freeman. Her first husbands name was Frank Richardson. He died about 1845. She had two sons before she married my father but both died. They were married on her birthday. She was the mother of ten children of which five survived her. Myself, George Washington Freeman, born December 22, 1849; Frank N., born October 17, 1858 and died April 27, 1923; Dr. Clara M. Freeman, born May 6, 1861 and died in 1919; Adah Orelana, born December 10, 1864 and died December 5, 1931 and Laura A. Isom, born November 4, 1866. My mother died in 1916. My father, William, (born in Granger County, Tennessee, January 1816 and died near Healdsburg, Sonoma County, 1877) and Uncle James came to California in 1850 and settled in Sonoma County and engaged in farming. My father cradled grain at $2.50 per acre and did two acres a day. He bought a threshing machine and ran it for several years. The Indians came one day in my fathers absence and murdered my Uncle James. My father followed them up, had them arrested, tried, convicted and hanged. He then decided to go home to Iowa. He took a ship to the Isthmus, crossed over part of the way on mule back to a ship at Colon, went to Havana, stayed there three days and took another ship to New Orleans. He then took a steamboat to Memphis, Tennessee; thence to East Tennessee by rail where he visited among his old friends and payed up what he owed when he left in 1840. One man did not want to take a $20.00 gold coin that my father gave him to settle an account, which, with interest, came to that sum. The man asked my father if he had any paper currency. My father told him that he had none and did not want any on account of the trouble in the banks at that time. When my father told him that he would pledge his word of honor that the coin was worth $20.00 and would bring that amount anywhere in the United States the man took the coin. When my father returned to our home in Iowa, in March 1855, he brought Joel Edward with him. I remember well the fact that he wore a Panama hat which was very strange in the Month of March in Iowa. Ed went to school a short time at a little school house a short distance from our home. Father told him that he would send him to school as long as he wanted to go. He did not go for long for father had purchased two pieces of land, 60 acres each, in Ringold County, South Western Iowa. Jim joined him shortly after and they worked their land. My father went into the Real Estate Business in Iowa in 1855, building houses in a small village named Batavia, which was about one mile and a half from the old farm where I was born. He also went into the General Merchandise Storekeeping but as he had had no experience in either line of business he soon went broke. Then he decided to go to California and retrieve his fortune. My mother had a farm of forty acres with the buildings which brought $800.00 when she sold it. My father bought a drove of cattle and took them to Chicago and sold them all. With the proceeds of both the farm and the cattle, my father bought some young heifers, two and three years old, two blooded bulls, two cheap horses, four yoke of oxen, one large and one small wagon with as small an equipment of food, clothing and medicines as we could get along with. Two of my cousins pooled their resources and made up a team of four yoke of oxen and a small herd of cattle. My two brothers sold their farms and invested in a four yoke of oxen, a wagon and supplies and a herd of young cattle. A few days before my brothers started, Joel Edward married Virginia Cooksey. Our party crossed the Missouri River on May 8, 1859. We arrived in the eastern edge of California in October after a long and trying trip. We lost a great number of cattle, both of our bulls and two yoke of oxen. The very poverty of our train was what saved us from being killed as were the trains that went before and those that followed us. Only three wagons survived the trip, six men, three women and four children. Of the children were my cousin John Lowe, ten years old going on eleven, myself nine years of age soon to be ten and my brother Frank about seven months old. My cousins' little boy was about one year old. Joel Edward was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee January 9, 1836. On May 1, 1859 he married Virginia Cooksey, born in 1842, a native of Franklin County, Indiana. Six children were born to their union. Willis, born January 22, 1860; Willie, born July 19, 1862; John, born October 13, 1963; Sarah, born March 18, 1865; Thomas Edward, born January 21, 1870 and Charles Henry, born July 23, 1877. Willis Freeman married Mary Ellen McElroy November 29, 1881. Mary was born August 15, 1862. To their union were born three children, Frederick j., born September 23, 1882; Jean Freeman, born March 15, 1884; Mabel, born March 15, 1886. Mabel Freeman died June 15, 1886. Frederick Freeman, son of Willis, married Ida Jacklo on August 17, 1915 and to their union was born one son, Harold Owen, born August 1, 1916. Jean Freeman, daughter of Willis, married Curry Dinsmore Jameson April 20, 1910 and to their union were born three children: Merrie Kathryn, December 25, 1914; Virginia Helen, born August 13, 1916 and Richard Elliott, born May 12, 1920. Willie Freeman married Eva Lee Walker, May 23, 1892 in Marysville, and to their union were born four children: Verlie Mae, born December 10, 1892; Letitia Delila, born November 23, 1893; Grace Olive, born January 1, 1895 and Frank William, born March 17, 1908. Verlie Mae Freeman, daughter of Willie, married Percy John Clay on October 1, 1917 in Marysville. To their union were born three children: Eva Alberta, born March 2, 1920; Frank William, born January 8, 1922; and Ruth Evelyn, born December 20, 1926. Letitia Delila Freeman, daughter of Willie, married Raymond George Webster, on May 11, 1915 in Sacramento and to their union one son was born: William Raymond, born October 8, 1917. Grace Olive Freeman, daughter of Willie, married John Leland Jones, June 24, 1917 in Marysville, and to their union were born three children: Lela Mae, born February 26, 1919; Elma Lee, born September 25, 1920; and Norma Grace, born October 12, 1928. Grace has divorced her husband. Frank William is not married. John Freeman, son of Joel and Virginia, married Margaret Hall December 22, 1917. He died December 15, 1929. Sarah Freeman, daughter of Joel Ed and Virginia, married Royal Burr Young June 15, 1891 and to their union were born six children; Ivy Virginia, born March 13, 1892; Chester Royal, born August 24, 1893; Walter Harold, born September 29, 1897; Edna Dorothy, born October 8, 1900; Freeman Roy, born August 17, 1903 and Mildred Amy, born May 2, 1914. Sarah died February 23, 1926. Ivy Young, daughter of Sarah and Royal Burr Young, married Jay Dudley Remington December 16, 1917 and to their union were born three children. The children all passed away in the fall of 1923. Mr. Remington was killed July 21, 1924. She then married Clinton Morris Rablen November 24, 1929. Walter Young, son of Sarah and Royal, married Helena Gravenhorst November 6, 1930. Freeman Roy Young, son of Sarah and Royal, married Elvie Lulu McKenzie November 14, 1928. They have one child, Edith Mae, born January 1, 1930. Edna Young, daughter of Sarah and Royal, married Charles J. Nissen September 2, 1925. Charles Henry Freeman, son of Joel Ed and Virginia, married Alice Stephanson January 1, 1905 and to their union were born four children: Charles Walter, born February 8, 1906; William Andrew, born August 31, 1908; Joel Edward II, born March 31, 1914; and Dorothy Alice, born April 4, 1916. Charles Freeman Jr., son of Charles Henry Freeman and Alice Stephanson married Jessie Curl, May 20, 1930 and they have a daughter, Barbara Ann, born April 16, 1931. James Allen Freeman, son of William's first family, married a widow nine months before his accidental death. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Treasure. James Freeman died without making a will although repeatedly urged to do so. The estate was appraised at about $10,000. The widow was appointed executrix of the estate. She held in her own name a homestead, valued at $2500, situated one and one half miles from the village of Loyalton, Sierra County, California. The balance of the estate which amounted to about $8750 was divided equally between the brothers and sisters of the full blood and those of the half blood. Matilda, daughter of William Freeman's first family and sister of Joel Edward and James came to Iowa in 1857 and shortly afterward married Oliver Foor, the oldest son of a preacher who lived in the village of Batavia. Father gave her a wedding outfit that equaled in value of what each of the brothers received. To this union were born Rhoda Penelope, Mellissa, two younger daughters and two sons. Rhoda Penelope Foor Logan, wife of James V. B. Logan was born in 1864. She is the last survivor of the Oliver Foor family. Rhoda and Van were married about 1888. They had one child whose name was Annie. James V. B. Logan was born in Kentucky in 1840, served in the Fifth California Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, died December 7, 1922 at the age of 82 and was buried in Stockton. Rhoda P. Foor Logan makes her home at present (June 23, 1932) with her daughter in San Francisco. Annie Logan, daughter of Rhoda and James Logan married C. A. Milton November 9, 1890. She is childless. Mellissa Foor, sister of Rhoda P. Foor, married Henry Clark. They had one child who is now living in Stockton. Mellissa died at the age of 29 in the year of 1889. Her husband is still alive. Ed made two trips back east, one to Tennessee and one to Iowa. He bought a house and lot in Otumwa, Iowa and put his Mother and sister Matilda in it. She cared for the Mother as long as she lived. George Washington Freeman (myself) the oldest son of William Freeman's second family, was born December22, 1849. Married Margaret Jane Carr, born December 2, 1845, on June 12, 1891. She died in December 1917. I then married Mrs. Josephine Nelson in June 1919. She died June 12, 1925. There were no children by either union. Frank N. Freeman, son of William Freeman and Clarrissa Jane, was born in Jefferson County, Iowa, October 17, 1858. He married Ada Parker July 2, 1885. Ada Parker was born February 12, 1864. They had three sons and two daughters. He is survived by his sons and one daughter. The girls names are Loucratia Jane, born May 18, 1886 and Ada Bell, born September 19, 1887. The sons names are William James, born August 17, 1889, John Edward, born June 28, 1892 and Clarence Winthrope, born April 28, 1894. Loucratia Jane married Dan Bagneschi, September 13, 1922. Ada Bell Freeman married Charles Jones of Mason Valley, Nevada. About a year previous to her death his job was that of ditch tender on a line of ditches from a lake on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. The house they lived in was built below the dam. During the night a high wind arose which broke up the ice. The ice broke the dam and carried out the house and its occupants which consisted of Jones, his wife and a lady visiting them. Jones was carried to one side of the rushing torrent on a block of ice. He would have died had not his dog laid on his back and the warmth from the dogs body kept life in him until he was rescued. Ada Bells body was buried in the ice and it took her father and his three sons a long time to find the body and remove it so as to take home for burial. William James Freeman, son of Frank Freeman, married Mary West August 12, 1914. His children were: Ivy Elray, born May 12, 1916; Gertrude Annie, born May 18, 1918; Mary Marie, born July 11, 1922; James Frank, born April 3, 1925 and William George, born April 16, 1931. John Edward Freeman married Alma Morrow in October of 1914. One child was born named Jannette, born August 3, 1918. They were divorced. Clara May Freeman, the third child of the second family of William Freeman, was born May 6, 1861 in Sierra County, California. She came to Oakland, California in the month of January 1882 with her Mother and two sisters, Adah, Laura and George (myself). Shortly afterwards she entered the California Eclectic Medical College, then located on Clay Street in Oakland, since moved to Los Angeles. She was then under 21 years old and the youngest member of her class. She graduated in 1885, number 2 in her class, the only one without a high school or college education. Shortly after she went to Stockton California and opened offices were she practiced for several years. She then moved to San Francisco and located on Leavenworth Street. In 1901 she went East to Boston, Massachusetts and took a course of instruction in a school or Osteopathy. She next went to New York and worked six weeks for a German Doctor who had brought with him the first Electric Vibrator in the United States. She bought one of the vibrators and when she opened up office again she used it in her practice. Then she went to Washington, D. C., where she was the guest of Marion De Vre, representative of his district in California which included San Joaquin County of which Stockton is the County seat. This was his home town for a number of years. He was also a patient of Dr. Freeman. He took her to all the places of interest in the city, even down through the Black Belt where the little piccaninnies danced and sang for their amusement. She then started home to California. She stopped over a few days in Denver, Colorado to see the beauties of the city and enjoy its fine climate. After arriving in San Francisco she opened offices in the Greystone Building on Geary Street, a short distance above Kearney Street. She was there for some time when she and another lady, a cancer specialist, took over a building of 26 rooms on the corner of Divisidero and McAllister Streets and operated a Sanatorium. In a short time the cancer specialist dropped out and Dr. Freeman conducted it alone. She was there during the quake of 1906. After five years in this place she decided to get a cheaper place. She was paying $100 a month. She took over a building that had been occupied at one time as an old peoples home on Fulton Street. This building she fixed up in good shape and soon filled with patients. She also fitted up another building nearby for the care and cure of Inebriates. Some wealthy and influential neighbors entered a protest and the case was brought up in court and Dr. Freeman lost as there had been a new law enacted which stated that no hospital or sanatorium could operate except in a fire proof building. After this Dr. Freeman gave up medical practice and took up a course of mental healing under a teacher in Oakland. After graduating, she practiced for some time and was quite successful. Some time before this she had developed a insidious disease for which there was no cure, and which brought her life to an end. Adah Orelana Stubbs, sister of Frank and George Freeman, born December 10, 1864 in Sierra County, California and married on October 12, 1888 to Iddo Jason Stubbs, born July 21, 1861 in Des Moines, Iowa. Clarrissa Hannah, daughter of Adah and Iddo Stubbs, born February 21, 1893 in San Francisco, California and married on June 18, 1912 to Jessie Albert Priest, born May 2, 1893 in Stockton, California. Maradah Jane Priest, daughter of Clarrissa and Jesse Priest, born March 26, 1914 in Stockton, California. Billie Jason Priest, son of Clarrissa and Jesse Priest, born September 23, 1917 in Stockton, California. Viola Eleanor, daughter of Adah and Iddo Stubbs, born March 14, 1901 in Stockton, California and married on May 2, 1918 to Sarafino Joseph Pambianco, born April 16, 1895 in Stockton, California. Eleanor Marie Pambianco, daughter of Viola and Sarafino, born June 13, 1920 in Stockton, California. Laura Alice Freeman, sister of George Freeman, born November 4, 1866, married James Wemple Isom, born December 22, 1862, on April 8, 1888. To their union were born: Amy Lucille, born December 27, 1888; Clarrissa Wemple, born October 8, 1891 and James A. Isom, born June 23, 1897. Amy Lucille Isom married Gustav A. Blixt on April 16, 1910. To their union were born Eleanor Augusta, born March 11, 1911; Emma Lucille, born January 27, 1913; Gustaf Adolf, born July 20, 1914. Clarrissa Wemple Isom married Frank E. Staples on December 12, 1912. To their union were born Clarrissa Elizabeth, born September 3, 1913 and Aloha Eldene, born April 24, 1923. James A. Isom married Sue Beard, July 2, 1917. To their union was born Margaret Victoria, born April 8, 1918. They were divorced. James A. Isom married Vivian Estes on October 27, 1927. They were divorced. James A. Isom then married Mercedes Williams on April 30, 1932. JOHN LOWE, (born April 2, 1848. Died November 8, 1907.) Son of Mary Ann Freeman Lowe the sister of William Freeman. Married to Sarah Rebecca Barham (born February 18, 1859) on May 28, 1878. She died on June 28, 1898. The children born to this couple were: Daughters: Born: Died: FLORELLA ARVILLA . . . . . . . . . February 27, 1879. ETHEL VIOLA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 28, 1885. LAURA ALTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .February 7, 1887 . . . . . . . . .February 9, 1917. JESSIE MAUD . . . . . . . . . . . . . .December 30, 1888. LEONA MAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .May 2, 1891 . . . . . . . . . . . . April 7, 1900. Sons: Born: Died: MILLARD FRANKLIN . . . . . . . . . September 18, 1882. INFANT SON. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . January 1896 . . . . . . . . . . . Died 11 days later. FLORELLA ARVILLA LOWE married IRA ALBERT SPOON (born December 17, 1875. died October 7, 1921.) The children born the this couple were: Daughters: Born: Died: VERNA ALBERTA SPOON . . . . .October 23, 1902. MABEL LEONA SPOON . . . . . . .March 25, 1907. AMY SPOON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .July 1, 1910 . . . . . . . . . . . . July 1, 1910. Sons: Born: Died: VIRGIL SPOON . . . . . . . . . . . . .February 27, 1900 . . . . . . . . March 6, 1900. ELVIE C. SPOON . . . . . . . . . . . February 3, 1901. MYRON M. SPOON . . . . . . . . . .August 25, 1904. CLIFFORD SPOON . . . . . . . . . . July 9, 1909 . . . . . . . . . . . . July 12, 1909. MURRAY LOWE SPOON . . . . . .February 23, 1913. ETHEL VIOLA LOWE married Charles C. Spoon on January 15, 1902. The children born to this couple were: Daughters: Born: Died: RUBY VIOLA SPOON . . . . . . . . .November 5, 1902. Sons: Born: Died: CHARLES HOWARD SPOON . . . June 17, 1904. JOHN DAVID SPOON . . . . . . . . . June 5, 1921. UNNAMED SON . . . . . . . . . . . . .November 30, 1906 . . . . . . . December 7, 1906. MILLARD FRANKLIN LOWE married JESSIE REA MCKAY. No children: JESSIE MAUD LOWE Married CHARLES B. AGEE on January 1, 1908. The children born to this couple were: Daughters: Born: Died: LAURA AGNES AGEE . . . . . . . . October 10, 1908. DOROTHY MAY AGEE . . . . . . . .January 27, 1917. Sons: Born: Died: JOHN MILLARD AGEE . . . . . . . . May 5, 1915. CHARLES WARREN AGEE . . . . .January 30, 1922. ALONZO LOWE (born March 27, 1853. Died June 14, 1931.) Brother of John Lowe. Married ESTELLA BIDWELL (born January 6, 1856. Died August 29, 1923). The children born to this couple were: Daughters: Born: Died: SIDDIE BELLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . February 25, 1886. PEARL EVELYN . . . . . . . . . . . . .August 14, 1893 . . . . . . . . . March 16, 1916. SIDDIE BELLE LOWE married MR. CHARLES SMITH on September 5, 1922. Divorced in March 1924. |
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George Washington Freeman. |
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**I transcribed the above document from a photocopy of the typed original.
Many thanks to my cousin Rita Freeman for providing me with a copy to share. If you recognize a family member, please contact me. |
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View Our Freeman Family Tree |
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