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-169-

The next time I saw Grandpa and Grandma Freeman was when, living in Chicago, I took a vacation bus ride to Tampa, and spent a week with them at 400 E Lambright. They had sold the Corona Apartments and bought this single family home. It was during this visit that Grandma showed me the Freeman Family Bible, and told me that "the Freemans have a Mayflower Connection".

The final time I saw Grandpa: Edgar Oscar Freeman, was as explained in this memory note I wrote on August 22, 1977. "I enlisted in the Signal Corps on September 3, 1942. I was home (i.e., 3641 N Olcott Avenue, Chicago) until December 1942. when I moved to Philco Laboratories in Philadelphia. Grandpa Freeman (E.O. Freeman) was living with us in the spring of 1943. Grandma Freeman was dead. He left (Grandpa objected to me dancing; my father objected to Grandpa's objection). My Dad said he went to Waco, Texas (where Grandpa's mother ?Helen Louisa Willson was), then to Wilsey, Kansas. I went into active service at Camp Custer (Battle Creek, Michigan) on April 23, 1943. We (Helen Marie Waite and me) were married on February 19, 1944. Helen came to live with the folks when I left for overseas on March 23, 1944. After then Helen was told by my Dad: "too bad you didn't know Grandpa Freeman".

There are a number of personal experiences I had with my Grandparents Freeman: Edgar Oscar and Agnes Edna Freeman., but the following information was derived from recorded conversations with their son. Merlin Cedric Freeman, my father. Dad said:

1. His father, Edgar Oscar Freeman, was a painter of railroad cars, depots, and signs, and worked for the Illinois Central Railroad.

2. His mother, Agnes Edna Freeman, was a school teacher in Sault Saint Marie, MN, and also taught grammar school in Sioux City, Iowa.

3. With the wanderlust exhibited by Edgar Oscar Freeman in his travels for the Illinois Central Railroad, and the wanderlust exhibited by Agnes Edna Egglefield as evidenced by her birth in Ingersoll, Ontario Province, Canada; her move to Sault Saint Marie, MI when she was 12; teaching there, and then later, in grammar school in Sioux City, IA, they well could have met and married anywhere. Dad did not know the date nor the location. However, many years later, I located a Delayed Birth Certificate that Dad filed during World War II that specifically stated the marriage date to be July 25, 1895, but did not specify the location, although the certificate had been accompanied by a newspaper wedding announcement-which is no longer in existence.

4. The farm in Cherokee, Iowa was located four miles south east of town. It had a house on it, and son Merlin Cedric Freeman, was born in it in 1899. (We must presume that older brother Harold Edgar Freeman (born 1895) was also born in it


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© 2009 Raymond M Freeman