This paternal great great grandfather was born in Clarke County,* Georgia, but his family moved to Jasper County when he was very young. His father Josiah Freeman died when Henry was only nine years old and his mother
Elizabeth Jordan Freeman, who never remarried, retained possession of the "Land & Plantation" where they were living.
On November 12, 1840, H.H. and
Elizabeth "Lizzie" W. Turner were married in Newton County and continued living in Georgia until about 1845 when they and their two oldest children, daughters Mary James (b. 1842) and Narcissa (b.1844), moved to Cotton Valley in
Macon County, Alabama, part of a
Black Belt Region known for its dark rich soil. Of their eventual nine children, my great grandmother Nancy Elizabeth "Nannie" Freeman Chappell Warren (1857-1934) was their second youngest.
[Alabama. Entered ... 1842 by Sidney E. Morse and Samuel Breese ... New York. (New York: Published by Harper & Brothers, 1845).
Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]
In the 1850 U.S. Census for Macon County, H.H. listed real estate assets at $1000 and his occupation was "Farmer." Three little boys have been added to the family and there's a carpenter named Robert Good living with the family. Henry's name is not listed among the slave holders in the separate Slave Schedules of that enumeration.
[Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls); Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]
Lizzie's father Richard Turner died in 1852 in Newton County, Georgia, and besides his bequest to her, H.H. was able to buy two of his father-in-law's slaves on credit and they're probably among the seven enslaved persons listed in the Freeman household in the 1855 Alabama State Census.
["Georgia Probate Records, 1742-1990," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-30463-12657-62?cc=1999178 : 20 May 2014), Newton > Returns 1850-1856 vol 5-6 > image 233 of 665; county probate courthouses, Georgia.]
[Ancestry.com. Alabama State Census, 1820-1866 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Original data: Alabama State Census, 1820, 1850, 1855 and 1866. Montgomery, Alabama: Alabama Department of Archives & History. Rolls M2004.0008-M2004.0012, M2004.0036-M2004.0050, and M2008.0124.]
The year before the start of the Civil War we can see how H.H., still a farmer, had increased the his holdings to $3000 Real Estate and $3000 Personal Estate (most of which would have represented the value of his slaves).**
[Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]
However we do know details about H.H.'s farm from the 1860 Federal Census Non-Population Schedule for Agriculture which I have excerpted below so that his entry is the last one showing.
[Locality : Southern Division. Ancestry.com. U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.]
Compare the 18 bales of cotton grown by H.H. in Alabama with the 40 bales produced in the same year by another of my great great grandfathers,
J.T.S. Warren*** whose farming operations in Cass County, Texas, relied on the labor of 19 enslaved persons.
I have found no record suggesting that H.H. served in the Confederate Army but his oldest son, 16-year old Tom, enlisted as a private in Company H, 45th Alabama Infantry in 1862, was wounded on October 12th of the same year and died shortly afterward. The family was almost certainly in residence in Macon County when Union forces attacked the railroad lines (
read about that here).
Back in Georgia, H.H.'s mother died on June 25, 1865, barely two months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
The Freemans remained in Macon County until the autumn of 1869 when they, together with a bunch of their kin, set out to make a new life for themselves in Johnson County, Texas, where H.H. bought 320 acres in December of that year.
[Colton's New Map of the State of Texas. Complied from J. D. Cordova's Large Map. (inset) Plan of the Northern Part of Texas. Plan of Galveston Bay. Plan of Sabine Lake. Published By G. W & C. B. Colton & Co. No. 172 William St. New York.
Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]
In the 1870 U.S. Census for Johnson County, we can see the effect the Civil War had on the fortunes of the Freemans. H.H.'s personal estate had shrunk to $350. Five of the children were still living at home; 22-year old Josiah was farming with his father. Second-oldest daughter Narcissa and her husband John A. McBride and their young family were living nearby.
[Year: 1870; Census Place: Precinct 2, Hill, Texas. Township : Precinct 2. Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]
Ten years later the 1880 U.S. Census for Johnson County showed the Freeman household had expanded--four of H.H. and Lizzie's children were still living with them (and William was farming with his father), but now farm laborers and servants (and their children) had been added.
[Year: 1880; Census Place: Johnson, Texas; Roll: 1313; Family History Film: 1255313; Page: 261A; Enumeration District: 081. All of Justice Precinct No. 1 out of the corporation of Cleburne and SouthW. of Cleburne and Weatherford County Road and the Cleburne and Grandview County Road. Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]
New additions to the household include a 40-year old Mulatto servant Salina Prickard and her two children, Anna W. (7) and Charles Guy (5), William C. Carmichael, a 29-year old White farm laborer, Elizabeth Baker, a 35-year old Black servant with three children, Adaline (7), Ellen (5) and Thomas (3), and two more White farm laborers, 20-year old Stephen H. Hester and 27-year old James H. Brandon. From the number of employees that have been added, I think it's safe to assume that the Freemans have prospered in intervening decade.
After serving as Johnson County Commissioner in 1880-1882, 1884-1886, 72-year old H.H. died of pneumonia on December 29, 1887, and was buried in the Cleburne Memorial Cemetery.
*Possibly near Athens.
**Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate the relevant Slave Schedule for 1860 so we don't know how many there were.
***J.T.S. became their daughter Nannie's father-in-law when she married his son James Chappell Warren in 1885.
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