Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 609–610; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
William A. Freeman is a native born citizen of this county and
occupies a high position among the prominent and well-to-do farmers of
Bernadotte Township. His parents, Alexander and Mary (Benson)
Freeman, were natives of New York, the father, born February 6, 1808,
and the mother in 1814. They came directly to Fulton County in
1828 and were among its earliest pioneers.
Their son, of whom we write, was born in their pioneer home
November 29, 1840. He was carefully trained in all that goes to
make a good man and a successful citizen, and was given an education in
the district schools, which he afterward extended by reading and by
travel. He remained an inmate of the parental home until he was
twenty-five years old and during that time he made several trips to the
South and West, as he was very desirous of seeing something of his
native land, he being of an active, venturesome spirit. In 1859
Mr. Freeman went to Texas. He remained there about eight months
and returned home in May, 1860. We next hear of him in Idaho,
whither he went in 1864. In 1865 he left that State and came back
to his old home and a year after his return he bought a farm in
Bernadotte Township of one hundred acres. A year later he traded
that place for a farm of two hundred and forty acres in Knox County,
Mo., and removed to that place in 1867. In 1872 he sold his
property there and after coming back to Fulton County actively engaged
in the sawmill and lumber business the ensuing seven years. In
the meantime he bought two hundred and forty acres of timber land on
section 14, Bernadotte Township, he desired to make up the timber into
lumber in his mill. He continues to own the farm last mentioned
and has improved it greatly by building neat fences, and in other way,
and has one of the best appearing farms in this locality. He
engages in general farming quite extensively and at present has sixty
hogs, a fine hear of about forty head of cattle, and seventeen horses,
besides an interest in a thoroughbred Percheron-Norman horse valued at
$1,200.
Mr. Freeman has one of the coziest and most attractive homes in
the vicinity and to the lady who presides over it so graciously and
cordially co-operates with him in extending its bountiful hospitality
to their many friends, he was united in marriage May 11, 1879.
Mrs. Freeman was formerly Miss Julia E. Harris, and is a daughter of
Isaac and Margaret (Littlejohn) Harris, whose sketch appears on another
page of this volume. She is a native of this county and was born
December 16, 1860.
Our subject possesses a keen, clear intellect and is a man of
wide experience and extended information. He is known and
respected for the honesty and sincerity of his character, and has the
friendship of the best men in the community. He affiliates with
the Democrats in politics and always votes the straight Democratic
ticket.
