[Early History]-[1774-1860]-[Civil War - 1889]-[1890-1913]
[WWI-1938]-[WWII-1974]-[1975-1990]-[1991-2005]-[2006-2020]
http://www.glendalemt.com/Freeman_Atlantis_newpaper/Freeman_Glendale.html
https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncp/f/Frederick%20Kemper%20Freeman.pdf
Freeman Brothers, Virginia
(Frederick Kemper Freeman)
June 15th 1841 – September 09th 1928.
Frederick Kemper Freeman attended Kemper Family School,
later known as Kemper Military School, in Boonville, Missouri.
Frederick attended Kemper College in Gordonsville.
Frederick died in Albany, Georgia.
Brother of Frederick:
Legh (Leigh) Richmond Freeman Sr
( Dec 4th 1842 - Feb 7th 1915)
Father of sons including (Legh) Miller Freeman (1875-1955)
(soon to be called Miller Freeman Sr, father of F. Kemper Freeman Sr (1910-1982),
who is the father of Kemper Freeman Jr. - Land Developer of Bellevue, Washington)
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| https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/106242380/leigh-richmond-freeman |
Both brothers of Culpeper, Culpeper County, Virginia.
Legh's Wife #1 Ada V. (nee Miller) died 1879;
[wife #2- Mary R. (Whitaker) Freeman - married 11 July 1900 in St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota;
wife #3-Unknown; wife #4-Janie (Ward) Freeman]
Miller Freeman on his father, Legh Freeman:
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Frederick's brother Legh Richmond Freeman was a Confederate soldier too. True to his southern roots, Legh joined Morgan’s Raiders during the Civil War, and because of his telegraphy skills was sent behind enemy lines to tap into telegraph wires, sending false information to the North and bringing "true" information to Morgan.
Legh Freeman was captured in Kentucky in May, 1864 and sent to Rock Island prison.
In February, 1865, Legh became a "Galvanized Yankee," a term denoting former Confederate prisoners of war who swore allegiance to the United States and joined the Union Army, and was sent west to Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory -- where he arrived almost the same day the war ended.
Legh first became the telegraph operator at Fort Kearney a site on the construction route of the Union Pacific railroad. By December 1865, Legh bought an old printing press and started the Kearney Herald where he would take news right off the Overland Telegraph wire and put it in the paper. But the troops were leaving the fort for action out west, and the Union Pacific Railroad construction was fast approaching. So Legh wrote for his brother Frederick to join him, moved the press out of the Fort to the town of Kearny, NT, and began the newspaper in earnest.
Frederick's career in frontier journalism, for which he is principally known, began in the spring of 1866 when his brother Legh Richmond Freeman asked him to take over the Kearney Herald.
While Legh traveled around the West and sent dispatches to his brother, Frederick managed the daily activities of the newspaper, which he initially published on an old hand-roller press. Shortly after taking over the paper, he moved operations out of Fort Kearny and into Kearny City.
In the Fall of 1866, railroad construction proceeded beyond Kearny City. Frederick loaded his printing equipment on three wagons and traveled a hundred miles to the next railhead, North Platte, Nebraska Territory, whose rowdy population earned it the nickname "Hell on Wheels." The Freemans' newspaper, which they had renamed the Frontier Index, also quickly earned a nickname, the "Press on Wheels."
Between 1866 and 1868 the paper rolled through Fort Sanders, Laramie City, Benton, and Green River City in Dakota Territory and Bear River City in Wyoming Territory. During one of these moves, a wagon and equipment weighing close to 7,000 pounds ran over Frederick, causing spinal and internal injuries and hospitalizing him for two months at Fort Sanders
Frederick accused a Fort Sanders general of being a southern sympathizer who supported Grant in order to advance his own career. However, Frederick, who also owned hotels and speculated on real estate, used editorial space to criticize western rowdiness as well.
In an article published on May 29th 1868, Frederick wrote,
"Our citizens should support a strong police force and help them to put down crime and rowdyism. We were told yesterday of two bands of horse thieves and highwaymen
that have their dens on Crow and Dale creeks, each numbering thirty or forty men.
They are circling around Laramie, playing Indian. We say go for 'em."
The Freemans' controversial reporting may have contributed to the dramatic end of their enterprise in Bear River City in November 1868. A mob of railroad workers , reportedly led by a relative of a man imprisoned or killed by vigilantes, destroyed the Freemans' equipment and burned their office.
The riot, in which more than a dozen people may have died, has been blamed on various factors, including the Freemans' association with vigilantes and the paper's harsh treatment of Grant and Mormons. Legh himself blamed the Credit Mobilier fraud ring, which the Freemans supposedly had angered. Frederick, on the other hand, claimed that railroad owners arranged the riot to remove the brothers from land holding huge coal supplies.Whatever the reason for the riot, both brothers returned to Virginia. Frederick left behind careers in not only journalism and business but politics.
Legh met and married Ada Miller in 1869, and together they came west, first to Rock Springs, Wyoming, where Legh hoped to benefit from the lucrative coal mines there. But that venture was not successful, so Legh, Ada and their two sons arrived in Ogden, Utah, 1874 believing they had the support of the Mormons -- after having met with Brigham Young 5 years earlier.
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| Aaron Mercer Jr. (1824-1902) sold the Mercer Slough in 1871 and moved family to part of the Duwamish Valley. | | |
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| Meydenbauer had no intention of building a permanent residence himself. His cabin was enough to “prove” his homestead and gain him title to the land. Once the land became profitable. Meydenbauer later acquired some property on what would become "Hunts Point", and retired from baking in 1890. | |
William Meydenbauer and Aaron Mercer Jr. sold their claims during the early 1870's and moved on,
leaving only their names.
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Henry Nathan Jr. bought almost all of present-day Hunt's Point area (except for a thin slice on its eastern side) and about half of Evergreen Point in May 1869.
That same month James Brackett bought land south of Fairweather Bay, which included the area now known as the Fairweather Yacht Basin and Hunts Point Circle.
1869 Neils Anderson obtained a patent along the eastern edge of Hunts Point.
His holdings extended along the shoreline of Cozy Cove (originally known as Anderson Bay)
into part of Yarrow Point and south to what is now Clyde Hill.
On Hunt's Point itself land was being sold and parceled out, which would soon trigger settlement ~1890.
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In 1870 a single election precinct was established on the Eastside.
So few persons resided there that one precinct covered all residents from the Black River to the mouth of the Sammamish.
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In 1871, Marshall Blinn (1827-1885) acquired most of what is now Hunts Point, a finger of land stretching into Lake Washington just east of Medina and north of Clyde Hill.
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Next to settle on Mercer Slough was Civil War veteran
Clark M. Sturtevant (1840-1911), who acquired 160 acres
as part of his compensation for fighting in the war.
Former residents told mid-twentieth century historian Lucile McDonald
that Sturtevant had to break seven beaver dams in 1873 when he paddled
to the upper end of the slough to reach his property
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Local School District #28 was formed February 8, 1879 and took in T24N R4E Sections 11, 12, and 13, and T24N R5E Section 18 and part of 17. Essentially this is the upper 1/3 of Mercer Island only and the eastern boundary was the middle of the East Channel
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Legh Richmond Freeman and Ada Miller-Freeman began publishing The Ogden Freeman, a four page, semi-weekly paper, with the first issue on Sept 5, 1876.
Ada handled day-to-day operations while Legh travelled to gather news and sell advertising. They must have been optimistic about their business chances as they had plans to convert The Ogden Freeman to a daily paper in December, 1876.
Legh had, in his other papers, regularly blasted Ulysses Grant, whom he called a "whisky bloated, squaw ravishing adulterer". Legh and Ada were gentiles deep into Mormon country. The Freeman brothers early association with vigilantes and paper's harsh treatment of Grant and Mormons caught up to Legh.
The local community turned against Legh Freeman to run him out of Ogden -- which they did.
Legh and Ada had decided on Montana, and while Legh was already in Glendale and Butte getting his business set up, Ada loaded two wagons full of personal belongings and printing equipment, with her four sons, Randolph (9), Hoomes (6), Legh Miller (4) born 1875, and Smohalla (1) and with Ada driving one of the wagons and a printer the other, headed north to Glendale and Butte, Montana.
Ada later died of an accidental gunshot to the hip.
MEMORY'S BEGINNING (a story of his mother) by Miller Freeman
"As we were traveling along somewhere in the upper Red Rock Creek Valley a shotgun which was carried hanging in the loops of some straps in the wagon became dislodged and fell into the spokes of the front wheel of the wagon in such a way that it was discharged, wounding my Mother in the hip. The explosion of that gun and the confusion which followed are my earliest recollection. My Mother was taken to Butte and placed in a hospital. Just how, I cannot say. My next memory is when they took me to the hospital that I might see my Mother before she died. This bitter visit I remember well. I was ushered in to see my mother, and I remember vividly that she said to me: "Legh, I know you will always be a good boy". Those are the only words of my mother which I can recall, but from the uttering of them the years are plain in my recollection."
August 27th 1880, Legh Richmond Freeman wrote a letter calling son Legh Miller Freeman as Miller for the first time (above copy).
See Miller Freeman's explanation:
Miller Freeman began to occupy land on the North side of the Montlake "Cut" canal now UW Stadium, Hospital and Medical Center.
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Visit https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/imlsmohai/id/12007/ to see the original letter from Isaac and Isabelle Bechtel letter about Great Seattle Fire, June 24, 1889, addressed to Isaac's mother, sister, brother, and family:
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on the west side of 108th Avenue S.E., just north of S.E. 25th Street.
(Killarney (keh-LAR-nee; Irish: Cill Airne, meaning "church of sloes";
pronounced [ˈcɪl̠ʲ ˈaːɾˠnʲə]) is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland.)
H.E. Kelsey was the teacher for 9 students. (Kelsey Creek is named for him)
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| In 1886, Thomas Lane Dabney (1847-1923) arrived from Seattle and staked ownership of land, eventually named "Medina", and "Dabney Point" and "Dabney's landing" (dock). |
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| Jacob Furth (1840-1914) In the 1880s Jacob Furth, of Puget Sound National Bank, bought most of the land that later became Yarrow and Hunts Point. With exception of a 16-acre parcel of land along the southern shoreline of Cozy Cove (the site of his summer home), he gradually sold off most of his holdings. |
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| Leigh S. J. Hunt |
Leigh S. J. Hunt (1855-1933), namesake of Hunts Point, became Yarrow Point’s first land speculator and on its northern shoreline Hunt built a large estate he named “Yarrow” after a favorite poem by William Wordsworth.
William Easter filed the first homestead claim in 1886 on present-day Yarrow Point.
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July 21st, 1886, the area Post Office opens before the area is named Bellevue.
At the time the post office did about $100.00 in business a year.
Issac Kinsey Bechtel was Bellevue's first area "postmaster" early in 1886.
Matthew S. Sharpe, brother of Lucian (Lou) Sharpe, became an official postmaster;
His post office was located within the future city limits of Medina. Sharpe also moved to the area with his brothers from Belleview, Indiana - possibly as postal agents
Because Bechtel's post office needed an official designation, postal inspectors titled the location as Bellevue ("beautiful view" in French) based on the beautiful view from the house - and possibly Isabelle's name.
After Isabelle's retirement, William Ivey became area postmaster and used his own home as the post office for 23 years.
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May 13, 1887, a new 14x20 foot one-room cabin on Main Street was built on property donated by John R. Kinnear and his wife Rebecca. The 200 foot wide x 200 foot deep property was given to the school district with the provision that “when the property should cease to be used in good faith for public school purposes, it at once reverts to grantors, their heirs, executors or assigns.”
Miss Florence Stowell was the teacher for eight students -- five from the Bechtel Family.
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Around 1888, Leigh S. J. Hunt deeded some land at the base of Yarrow Point
to his friend, Jacob Furth, the founder of the Puget Sound National Bank.
Daniel Fraser built a log cabin in the Northup area around this time.
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November 11, 1889, Washington Territory was admitted to the Union as the 42nd State of Washington!
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| U.S. Secretary of State James Blaine sent WA a telegram (above) Re: Statehood |
Miss Calanthia Burrows (“Tunie”), Albert’s daughter, was the first teacher for the 7 students.
She was paid $40.00 for a three month term.
The 7 students included 2 younger Burrrows children and 5 Miller children.
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| Burrows Cabin, built by Civil War veteran Albert Burrows Sr. in 1883, was transported August 2016 to Chism Beach Park. Burrows Landing was situated about half way between Meydenbauer Bay and Beaux Arts area. Albert Selden Burrows Jr., who was simply known as “Sel,” eventually became the Superintendent of Schools in King County |
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