Dickinson Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and
Biographical Record of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and
Marion Counties-George W. Freeman
Portrait and Biographical
Record of Dickinson, Saline, McPherson and Marion
Counties
Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1893
GEORGE W. FREEMAN. The history of
Dickinson County would be incomplete
without the sketch of this gentleman who
was its first settler and is one of its most honored
pioneers. He was born in Rutherford County, N.
C, in 1820, and aided his father in the cultivation
of the home farm until twenty-two years old, when
he started out for himself, peddling dry-goods,
cutlery, etc. He followed that business four years,
when, with his brother, he purchased three small
farms and began stock-raising. In connection with
that business he also ran a distillery for four
years.
In 1852, Mr. Freeman was united in marriage
with Elizabeth, daughter of John Sorrels, a
merchant and farmer, and then turned his attention to
agricultural pursuits. Three years later, he bade
good-bye to his native State and removed to
Montgomery County. Ark., settling thirty miles
from Hot Springs, where he made his home until
1855, when he came to Kansas. He pre-empted
one hundred and sixty acres of land on section
12, Noble Township. At that time there were
frequently ten thousand Indians in the locality,
hut they never molested him. Small game of all
kinds was plentiful and buffaloes still roamed over
the prairie. Wild animals were also numerous, and
wolves killed thirty of the eighty-five head of cattle
which Mr. Freeman brought to this county. As
far as the eye could see there was nothing but prairie
grass, except where a few trees bordered the
banks of the creek. Mr. Freeman suffered untold
hardships and privations. He lost one entire crop
and a portion of another by grasshoppers, and his
home was almost destroyed by the overflow of
Chapman Creek.
Another misfortune came to him in the death
of his wife, which occurred in the spring of
1856. She left him with three small children
whom he kept with him, caring for his motherless
little ones without help for five years. He then
married Nancy B., daughter of Joseph Crook,
a farmer and blacksmith of Junction City. The
children of the first marriage are: C. H., who resides
with his family on a farm a short distance
from his father; A. J., a successful farmer and
stock-raiser who owns two hundred and eighty acres
of land near the old homestead; John F. is married
and resides on the same section as his father. He
also has eighty acres of well-improved land and a
fine lot of horses. The children of the second
marriage are: Clara D., wife of John P. Smith, of
Noble Township; W. A., who is employed on a
ranch near Junction City; J. P. and Anna at home.
The mother of this family was called to her final
rest in 1882.
Mr. Freeman has been prominently identified with
the history of this community. He aided in organizing
the county, holding the first county office,
that of Commissioner, to which he was appointed.
In the succeeding fall, he was elected Probate Judge
and Justice of the Peace, serving in the former
position for two years, and in the latter at intervals
for eighteen years. He has seen the entire
growth of the county, which owes to him a debt
of gratitude for labor performed in its behalf.
Viewed from a financial standpoint, during the
earlier years of his residence here his life proved
a failure. Misfortune rapidly overtook him and
he was forced to give up his home, but afterward
secured a homestead of one hundred and eighty
acres on section 12, where he now resides. Mr.
Freeman is a warm-hearted man, of jovial and
genial disposition, and is quite popular, being held
in high esteem by all who know him.
(c) 2009 Sheryl McClure for
Dickinson County KS AHGP