The Saxby Home
The old Saxby home, 1124 S. Saxby Ave., has been sold to Dr. John V. Sullivan, eye specialist at the Freeport CLinic. The place was sold by Aural G. Saxby, grandson of the original owner, Charles Saxby. The ground as it now stands, and which Dr. Sullivan acquired, is a 175 foot square lot. Originally the Saxby holdings consisted of the entire area from Saxby avenue west to Globe avenue and from Lincoln boulevard down to Empire street. The Saxbys were early Freeport settlers and maintained some of the finest saddle horses is the area. Most of the land has been sold and is now one of the newer additions to Freeport. The many trees on the grounds are one of the outstanding beauties of the place. Dr. Sullivan thinks that in order to get a grant from the government, settlers were required to plant a certain number of trees. Most of these trees still stand. The majority of them are larch, a species of spruce, but on the front lawn stands a huge oak which is thought to be about 100 years old. Dr. Sullivan and his family moved to Freeport in January from Akron, Ohio, where he practiced for 12 years. Mrs. Sullivan is also a physician, but not practicing. They have four children, Lucile, Peter, Archie, and Denis.
Two weeks ago we ran a column item on the old Saxby home, which has been sold to dr. John V. Sullivan. We recently received a letter from Miss Alda Saxby of Canoga Park, Calif., who corrected a misstatement, C. M. Saxby, the original owner of the farm, was the father and not the grandfather, as we said, of Aural, who sold the home to Dr. Sullivan. Miss Saxby says her father bought the property, Sept. 30, 1875. The old Savanna road used to cross diagonally across the yard where the row of maples is. It was straightened and now Empire street runs east and west. The land was kept intact until 1892, when Lincoln boulevard was put through. Again in 1910 it was subdivided from Lincoln boulevard to American street and called Saxby Heights. the barn was built in 1888 and was the largest in the area. Miss Saxby says she remembers the late L. H Burrell telling her that every generation of his family played in that barn. Mr. Saxby kept not only saddle horses there, but harness horses too, and when Europe was buying mules for World War I, he also had carloads of mules sheltered there. Miss Saxby recalls, too, that the White School stood on the corner of Globe avenue and Stephenson street and all five of the Saxby children attended school there.
Contributed by Karen Fyock - Undated scrapbook clipping
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