WILLIAM FREESEN, now deceased, having died near Oxville, Scott county, Illinois, in 1884. He was fifty-four years of age, being born in the Rhine province, Prussia, Germany, near the river Rhine, in November 1829. He came of German parents, who lived and died in Germany. He was the only member of his family to come to this country, which he did when he was twenty-three years of age, setting out from Antwerp, in 1852, for the United States in a sailing vessel. He landed in New Orleans after a seven weeks' voyage. He came to Beardstown, and after the first year became a farmer, purchasing land in Cass county, where he became a successful farmer. He owned 200 acres of good land in Cass county, and 240 acres in Scott, at the time of his death. His widow still owns the Cass county farm. Mr. Freesen was a good, worthy citizen, a member of the Lutheran Church, and a stanch Democrat.

He was married after the first year in this county, in Beardstown township, to Elizabeth Stauttler, who proved herself a most devoted wife, and a woman in every way worthy of the good husband she had. She now enjoys the property she helped her husband accumulate. She was born in the same place as her husband March 9, 1838, and was reared and educated by her German parents, William and Margaret (Speaker) Stauttler. The former died in Germany, when a young man, and his daughter, Mrs. Freesen, was only eighteen years old. Her mother is yet living in Beardstown, and is eighty years old, and is now the wife of F. W. Friday, and both old people have been prominent members all their lives, of the Lutheran Church.

Mrs. Freesen came to America with her mother and stepfather, on the same vessel as Mr. Freesen. She is the mother of twelve children, four of whom are deceased: Margaret, Bell, Anna and Hannah, all died young. The living ones are: William, now a farmer in Scott county, married to Matilda Baully; George Garrett, a farmer in Scott county; Fred, a resident of St. Louis; Katie, at home, and she and her sister Maggie, also at home, dressmakers; Henry is at home, as are also Lewis and Edward. Mrs. Freesen and all the children are members of the Lutheran Church.