My Genealogy Hound

John Freeman is a successful merchant of Seymour, Mo., and was born on the 4th of January, 1833, in Roane County, Tenn., both of his parents, B. D. and Elizabeth (Fortson) Freeman, being born in the same State, where they were also reared and married. After residing in Anderson County, Tenn., for some time they moved to Missouri in 1848, and located in what is Webster County at the present time, where they made a farm, reared their family, and where the father died in 1883. Since fifteen years of age John Freeman has been a resident of Missouri, with the exception of about fifteen years spent in gold mining on the Pacific slope. He made the journey overland to California in 1852, reaching that State at the end of three months, and during his residence in the West was engaged in the mercantile and livery business as well as mining, and also fed stock a portion of the time. In 1865 he returned home via Nicaragua, New York City and St. Louis, and settled in Webster County, where he engaged in farming and dealing in cattle, which occupation he continued until 1882, when he entered into the mercantile business at Waldo, where he sold goods for two years, and then moved to Seymour and embarked in his present business, which is bringing him in a nice annual income. He carries a large and select stock of general merchandise, and does an annual business of $20,000. In December, 1865, he was married to a widow lady, Mrs. Elizabeth C. (Amick), a daughter of Lorenzo and Cynthia Amick, and the widow of Abraham McMahan, by whom she had one child, Elijah. Mrs. Freeman was born in Webster County, and she and Mr. Freeman are the parents of the following children: Lorenzo D., Mary M., John T., Robert J. and Laura M. Mr. Freeman is a Master Mason in the Masonic fraternity, and he and wife are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.