Gamaliel C. Freeman
March
11, 1852
| Birth of Gamaliel C.
Freeman in Ohio. Father was Job Tarlton Freeman, a farmer, born June 10, 1810,
in Virginia. His mother was Eveline Barnes, born 1820 in Ohio. Gamaliel was
eighth of nine children.
[Photo of Barrett Building memorial tablet, published
in Denison Herald, June 25, 1972] | 1860
| Living at age 8 in
Roxand, Eaton, Michigan (post office Charlotte), with a large family, including
married sister Charlotte E. Freeman and her husband Lorenzo K. Showman, an
"artist." Father
Job is a farmer. [Census]
Incidental
note: G. C. Freeman's older sister Charlotte E. Freeman (born 2 June 1835)
married
Lorenzo K. Showman on March 19, 1857. Lorenzo was born in Maryland in
1829 and served in the Union Army in the Civil War. He is listed as a
photographer in Portland, Michigan, in the Michigan State Gazetteer
and Business Directory in 1875 (p. 636). His studio is at the corner of James and
Kent. His
wife is there, too, listed as a milliner, located on Bridge. The 1900 Census
has Showman,
at age 77, working as a photographer in Waverly, Humphries County,
Tennessee. | Aug.
22, 1870
| Living in Roxand,
Eaton, Michigan (post office Sunfield) at age 18 (listed as 16, with no
occupation)
with father Job (farmer), mother Eveline, and brother Job, age 14.
Many Bosworths live nearby. [Census] | 1882–1883
| Partner with David H. Swartz
in Swartz & Freeman, Columbus, Texas. Swartz sold out to Freeman
in
February 1884. [See Colorado Citizen (newspaper), 14 Feb 1884, cited in Haynes (1993),
p. 42.] | | 1884 | Photographer in
Columbus, Texas. [Colorado Citizen,
February 14, 1884; cited in Haynes (1993), p. 42] | February
1884
| Swartz sold out his part
of the photography studio to G. C. Freeman. [Source, Mautz, p. 460]
See
Colorado Citizen (newspaper), 14 Feb 1884, cited in Haynes (1993), p. 42. | Dec.
18, 1888
| "Swartz &
Freeman, the photographers, have hung out a large new sign at the First
National Bank
corner." Denison
Gazetteer, Dec. 23, 1888; reprinted in Grayson County Frontier Village, Sunday
Gazetteer Local Condensations, vol. 2 (Nov. 1888–May 1889), p. 31. | Feb. 27, 1889
| "Some fine specimens of fine
photography were on exhibition today by Messrs. Swartz & Freeman,
in the
show window of Marsh's shoe store [314 West Main Street], and in front of the
First National Bank." Denison
Gazetteer, March
3, 1889; reprinted in Grayson County Frontier Village, Sunday Gazetteer
Local Condensations, vol. 2 (Nov. 1888–May 1889), p. 68. | Feb.
28, 1889
| "Messrs. Swartz
& Freeman, with their customary enterprise, have made photographs of
upwards of
forty of the ladies who took part in the trades carnival display.
These pictures have been taken in the costumes in which the ladies appeared,
and are mementos which no doubt many of our citizens, particularly the business
firms represented, would like to have. These remembrances of this suspicious
[sic] event have been secured by Messrs. Swartz & Freeman, at a large cost
of time and money, but it will no doubt prove, as it deserves to, a large
source of revenue in the end." Denison Gazetteer,
March 3, 1889;
reprinted in Grayson County Frontier Village, Sunday Gazetteer Local
Condensations,
vol. 2 (Nov. 1888–May 1889), p. 69. | 1889-1890
| Partner with John E. Swartz
in Swartz & Freeman, Denison [successors to Perry F. Goben].
“Photographers, Copying, and Enlarging Pictures.” “Leading Photographers.
Studio Over First
National Bank. Entrance, Rear of Bank.” 229 West Main Street,
entrance on Rusk Avenue. Both men board at Thompson House and room over First
National Bank, 231 West Main Street. Thompson House
is located at 400 West Main
Street; H. Thompson is proprietor. Perhaps the same person, Harve Thompson, is
a dealer in ivory; his residence is at 807 West Main Street. H. M. Thompson, a
mail carrier, lives at Thompson House, too. [Denison City Directory; Mautz, Biographies;
Haynes, 1993] | 1891-1892
| Swartz & Freeman.
Photographers. Gamaliel C. Freeman and John Swartz, proprietors. Over 229 West
Main Street at the corner of North Rusk Avenue. The two men room in the same
place. [Denison City Directory] | 1893-1894
| Swartz & Freeman is no longer
listed in City Directory; G. C. Freeman is no longer listed as a
photographer
in Denison. [City Directory] A much later news article indicates Freeman became
YMCA secretary in 1893. | 1896-1897
| YMCA Parlors (Gamelia [sic]
C. Freeman, secretary), offer rooms for Christian young men on
the second floor
of 307-309 West Woodard Street (Munson Block). [City Directory] | | 1900 | Gamaliel C. Freeman
not found in the U.S. Census of 1900. | 1901-1902
| Gamaliel C. Freeman, general
secretary, YMCA, office over 309 West Woodard Street. Rooms at
the same place.
[Denison City Directory] Note: Freeman occupied this position for 18 years
until his death in 1911. | | 1903 | Gamaliel C. Freeman,
general secretary, YMCA. Rooms at the same place. [Denison City Directory] | 1907
| G. C. Freeman,
editor, Association News (monthly). 309 W. Woodard. Manager, J. V. Baird.
Publication
of Young Men's Christian Association. Price 25 cents (annum).
[Source: Denison City Directory, p. 17] | 1910
| Gamaliel C. Freeman,
58 and single, superintendent of the Y.M.C.A. He lives at 309 West Woodard
Street (the Munson Block, formerly the Y.M.C.A.), just across the alley from
William B. Munson, his
wife Mary, and their children Maude, William Jr., and
Eloise. [U.S. Census] | August
1, 1911
| Gamaliel C. Freeman is
murdered by gunshot in southern Oklahoma at Armstrong, Bryan County,
while
surveying for a boys’ camp. His killers were never caught. Newspapers called
the death “mysterious.” His body was brought to Denison and then he was buried
in Coffeyville, Kansas. A
funeral was held at the First Presbyterian Church in
Denison. Gamaliel had never married. In 1913, a memorial plaque was placed in
the sidewalk near the YMCA building (531 West Main Street, now the Barrett
Building). [Denison Herald, June 25, 1972] | August
10, 1911
| A mass meeting was held
to "make a united effort to apprehend the murderer of G. C. Freeman."
["To Capture Slayer of G. C. Freeman: Mass Meeting at YMCA Tonight to
Raise Funds for a Reward," Denison
TX Daily Herald, August 10, 1911] | 1911
or later
| Estate was
probated in Kansas. It
consisted of hundreds of shares of mining stock, equity in
some public school
lands in Red River & Bowie counties, Texas; some mining land in Arkansas;
some land in Michigan (old home in Roxand Township). [Material posted by a
family member on Ancestry.com] | July 2,
1913
| Memorial tablet
installed in sidewalk at the northeast corner of West Main Street and North
Mirick
Avenue, Denison, Texas. ["Freeman Memorial Tablet," newspaper
article in Denison (Tex.) Daily Herald, July 2, 1913.] |
 
Herald Democrat
July 27, 1972
MURDER OF GAMALIEL C. FREEMAN
Biography Index
Susan Hawkins
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