Esther
R. (Barnhouse) Freed
(1852-1922)
Esther
Resler (Barnhouse) Freed was born on April 11, 1852
near Normalville, Fayette County, PA, the daughter of
Harrison and Catherine (Minerd) Barnhouse. She made a major
contribution to our family by serving as the treasurer of the first annual Minerd Reunion, held in 1913.
At Esther's death, she was said to have "held a record as a Sunday school teacher
believed to have been unsurpassed in Fayette county. For 50 years she
taught in the school of the East Liberty Presbyterian
Church at Vanderbilt,
relinquishing her work only when failing health compelled her to do so
..." Today she is memorialized on the church's
website.
Esther was raised in and around Normalville and East Liberty (Dickerson Run), Fayette County, PA. As a young, woman, she and her beloved father had been active in Sunday School -- in 1874 they were delegates to the 8th Annual Convention of the Fayette County Sabbath-School Union, and in 1876, she was a delegate at the 10th Sabbath School Convention.
On Oct. 16, 1875, at age 23, Esther married Christian Stoner Freed (1853-1934), the son of Henry Newcomer and Sarah (Stoner) Freed. They had five children -- Clara Jane Thorpe, Bertha Means, Sarah Elizabeth Freed, Mary Oswald and Walter A. Freed.
The Freeds were farmers. The Uniontown Genius of Liberty reported in 1880 that Christian "had a large bank barn raised on his farm...."
The Connellsville Courier later said that "When [Christian] was a young man he engaged in farming and followed that occupation until [1923] when he sold his farm known as 'Highland Farm,' near Vanderbilt, and retired. He had been a resident of Dunbar township for about 56 years. [He] was a member of the Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church, the Union Farmers Club of Fayette County and the Dunbar Grange."
The
Freeds resided in a small house near Vanderbilt, seen at right.
They seemed to enjoy having photograph portraits taken and then giving them to relatives as gifts. Portraits of Esther and Christian have been found today in the collections of her first cousins Ephraim Minerd, Lawson Minerd and Martin Miner.
In
the fall of 1899, when they were in their late 40s, Esther and Christian took a "long trip" to Kansas, presumably to
the homes of her sisters Clara Huston
and/or Susan Stoner. Upon
returning to Fayette County, Christian wrote a lengthy
report of the trip, published in the Nov. 3, 1899 edition of the Connellsville Courier.
His article, headlined "The Sunflower State," reported that "He says that he would like to live in Ottawa, Kas., were he
younger he might make the effort to make this his permanent home, but that he is
also content to remain in the old Keystone State." Among other things, he
wrote that:
...we were agreeably surprised to find more timber than we had expected to
see. There is plenty of timber along the streams to furnish fuel enough to
last for all time to come. We also found that people in the settling of
the country took a great interest in planting groves around their homes, thus
making the general appearance of the country resemble a forest rather than a
prairie, since the trees have grown....
...We arrived in Ottawa in time to see the windup of the Franklin County Fair and
were surprised to see such a gathering of people, and such a large collection of
fine stock and agricultural products. The farmers came in in their fine
surrys and buggies, instead of wagons, which certainly is an indication that the
Kansas farmers are prosperous.
The Freeds were very social, enjoying family gatherings of all sorts and sizes. In August 1919, although Esther was ill and unable to go, her children and grandchildren attended a large Freed reunion, seen below.
|
| The 1919 Freed Reunion. Two of Esther's daughters are seated in the front row. |
In 1913, the Freeds attended the first annual Minerd Reunion at Ohiopyle, PA, and Esther was elected treasurer. She kept a family Bible in which she inscribed information about her grandfather and grandmother Minerd, apparently learned when the Minerd history was read aloud at the reunion by cousin and family historian Allen E. Harbaugh. She and Christian also attended the 1920 reunion, held at the Ferncliff Hotel in Ohiopyle.
|
|
Christian planting a row in his garden, left, while Esther observes. Right: they nap after a long day's labor. |
Seen
at right are five silver forks that belonged to Esther. It is believed they
were part of a set presented to her by her parents as a wedding gift. The
precious silverware has been handed down in many generations of the family as
heirlooms and traveled to many towns along the way in Western Pennsylvania.
Today they are displayed in the home of a granddaughter.
Esther
died of a stroke on Sept. 11, 1922. She was laid to rest at the Dickerson
Run Cemetery near Vanderbilt.
Christian outlived her by 12 years, making his home with his children. As he became frail, he went to live with his married daughter Bertha Means at Herbert, Fayette County, at Christmas 1933. He was confined to his bed in mid-February 1934. After three weeks of final suffering, he died, at age 80, on March 2, 1934. His remains were brought to the home of son Walter at Vanderbilt for the funeral, followed by a service at the Presbyterian Church in Vanderbilt led by Rev. D.C. White and assisted by Rev. E.C. Pires of the third Presbyterian Church of Uniontown. He was laid to rest beside esther at Dickerson Run Cemetery. At his death, he was survived by 16 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
In an editorial, the Daily Courier eulogized: "In the death of Christian S. Freed, Dunbar township loses one of its best known citizens, his home community and the profession of farming one of the most useful and valuable exponents of all that was intended to contribute to the welfare of his neighbors and the advancement of the art to which he gave the productive years of his life."
Click here to visit a national Barnhouse family webpage, with broader information than just for those cousins belonging to our family.
|
|
Christian and one of his granddaughters, possibly Phoebe Workman, at the farm |
Copyright © 2000-2006, 2008 Mark A. Miner