My Genealogy Hound

ISAAC FREEMAN, nurseryman; P. O. New Carlisle, Clark Co.; born in Bethel Township, Miami Co., Ohio, May 4, 1832; is a son of R. M. Freeman, whose biography will appear in this work. He worked on the farm till he arrived at the age of 22, and then attended a select school at New Carlisle two years; in the spring of 1856, he went to California, and there spent about thirteen months in the northern part on Willow Creek, one of the tributaries of Feather River. From Dec. 1 to the middle of March, the snow was twenty-two feet deep on the level, and for twenty days they were shut off from everything, and then only by means of a tunnel, did they succeed in getting up to view the “beautiful snow,” and walk twelve feet above the top of their cabin. The remainder of his stay in California was spent further south, partly in the mines on the Stanislaus River, about 250 miles south, and the remainder of the time in a farming region still further south; he returned in 1858, and lived in Dayton till the next year, when he purchased 7 acres of land in Bethel Township, and in 1861, established a nursery. This was commenced on a small scale, but he learned the business as it progressed, and now the sales from his own growing amount to $3,000 annually. He owns 536 acres of land in this State and in Kansas. On May 5, 1859, he married Sophia S. Stafford, who was born in Bethel Township, Miami Co., Aug. 1, 1837; she is a daughter of James S. Stafford, an old settler here, and one of the prominent men of the township, having been Squire sixteen years in succession; in 1864, he moved to Carlisle, and departed this life Sept. 8, 1878, aged 75 years 7 months and 23 days. Isaac and Sophia S. Freeman are the parents of four children— Dayton L., born March 2, 1860; Charlie M., born March 7, 1862; Walter, born Sept. 17, 1870; and Grace, born June 17, 1873.