Mr. Freeman came to Auburn years ago.
He was originally from Massachusetts. He was one of the
hardest and most efficient workers I have ever known. He had a
large farm several miles from Auburn with a splendid,
commodious home and well kept barns and outhouses. In addition
to his farm crops, which were good and bountiful, he raised
fruits and berries of all kinds and was expert at it.
One of
my delights as a boy was to get out to Freeman’s farm and home
and spend the night. He had a large family and the boys my age
and I were fine friends. Mr. Freeman was a staunch Republican
and in those days in and around Auburn that was not a very
popular political party, but everyone highly respected Mr.
Freeman.
Mrs.
Freeman was a wonderful mother and she too, was an untiring
worker. They had 6 sons and 4 daughters. Arthur, now a retired
L&N engineer living in Louisville, was oldest; John , Irvin,
Rowland, Percy, Hurston (killed by a horse when he was young),
Ella, Ida, Daisy and Julia.
When
my father opened his school, Auburn College, Mr. Freeman
brought 6 children and put them in school and said, “If I like
your school, I will bring the rest,” and he did. He and father
were great friends and father often said Mr. Freeman was his
best and most loyal patron.
John
Freeman and I were converted in the same meeting and we two
and Wheeler Jamison were baptized at the same time in Black
Lick Creek down near the pumping station of the L&N Railroad
Co.
Mr.
Freeman finally moved to town so the transportation of his
children to and from school would not be such a task and so
expensive. They lived just across the street from our home and
were wonderfully fine neighbors and the children dandy
playmates. The Freeman boys were great baseball players. For
years John was an L&N engineer, and he now lives (and has for
years) in Montgomery, Alabama.
This
was one of the largest and finest families in Auburn in my
boyhood days. Several are dead (the parents have been dead for
years) and I am not familiar with the present homes of those
now living, except Arthur and John, as stated above.
