Obit: Freeman, Edward A. (1851? - 1949)

Contact: Stan
Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Freeman, Shute, Stallard

----Source: Humbird Enterprise (Humbird, Clark Co., Wis.)  01/29/1949

Freeman, Edward A. (1851? - 2 JAN 1949)

Word was received here last week of the death of Edward A. Freeman, at Centralia, Wash., Jan. 2^nd, 1949, at the age of 97 years.  Alone, after the death of his second wife, and his two brothers, his last years were spent in a nursing home, where he was nicely cared for an where he passed peacefully away, old age being the cause of his death.

There are very few people in our community who remember Ed Freeman.  He came here in the 1880’s and in partnership with Isaac Cross, had a general store in the building now owned and occupied by F.A. Tritsch.  In 1887 he left here and located in the new town of Altoona.  He sold that store in 1898 to the late F. A. Shute and B. J. Stallard, and located in Centralia, where he operated a grocery store for a few years and then became bookkeeper for the city water department.  His two brothers, Arthur and Truman, were railroaders, and they eventually located in Centralia, where the three old men became a landmark in the city.  Ed’s only son, Earl A., who was born in Humbird (Clark Co., Wis.), became assistant traffic manager for the Northern Pacific Railway at Seattle.  He died last April, and his father never came to the realization of his loss.

Ed Freeman’s first wife and a baby who died with its mother, are buried in Mentor Cemetery.

Bat all through the years Ed Freeman kept a tie to Humbird by his membership in the Masonic Lodge.  He was made a Mason in the local lodge Feb. 5, 1887, sixty-two years ago.  He received his fifty year certificate from the Wisconsin grand lodge in 1937, and Jan. 4, he was buried under the rites of the order in a Centralia Cemetery.

The Freeman brothers were born in Valparaiso, Ind., and were the oldest alumni of the University of that City.  Their father, Truman Freeman, donated the site for the school.