Azariah Freeman, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Azariah Freeman
AZARIAH FREEMAN, one of the old settlers of Porter County, is a native of Tolland County, Conn., and was born May 23, 1809; eldest of six children, four yet living, born to Enoch and Lury ( Huntington ) Freeman, and has made farming his chief occupation through life. At the age of twenty years, he went to Onondaga County, N. Y., to look after a farm his father owned, and remained there until 1838, but in the mean time (1831) returned to his native state, and married Miss Amanda Crane, a daughter of Isaac and Sarah L. ( Abbe) Crane , born April 6, 1809. He removed West in 1838, and purchased land in Michigan and Indiana, locating in Elkhart County, this State, where he farmed for a few years. He traded his property there for 160 acres on Morgan Prairie, Washington Township, Porter County, to which he removed in 1842. In 1850, he, and a company of others, emigrated overland to California. Upon his return to Porter County the next year, he located in Valparaiso. He has been especially identified in the educational advancement of the county. He was the founder of the old Male and Female College, and gave much toward its prosperity. After it discontinuance, he induced Mr. Brown to come here and start what is now know as the Northern Indiana Normal School, of which he is now Vice President. He has been connected with many other enterprises of the town and county. For eighteen successive years, he was Swamp Land Commissioner of Porter County, also County Commissioner for a time. He has held other positions of local honor and trust, among which was that of President of Town council for a number of years before Valparaiso became a city. Although an old man, he is yet on of the county's best and most active citizens. He and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the parents of four children, viz., Edwin E., Cordelia, George and Lura O.
Source: Goodspeed, Weston A., and Charles Blanchard. 1882. Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana: Historical and Biographical, Illustrated. Chicago, Illinois: F. A. Battey & Company. 771 p.
Page(s) in Source: 243-244
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook