The other day I was browsing newspapers when I found an article in the February 24, 1977 issue of the State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) that I think may help me tie my Elizabeth Freeland to a specific Freeland family.
Dogwood, aka The George Freeland House, in the State Times Advocate, February 24, 1977, captioned “…as it looked in 1970 when renovation began…”
“Dogwood, also known as (the) George Freeland house, was built after Freeland had cleared a field, raised a cash crop and built a road as required. The original portion of the house is in pen tradition, two rooms separated by a hall. Around the dwelling house are the kitchen, corn crib, smokehouse and slave cabins. After Freeland’s death, the house in 1835 came into the Atkins family, who made notable improvements and sold it to the Bickham family. The house remained, more or less, in this state until acquired by its present owners.
Freeland’s history is interesting, one typical of other frontier types streaming into Old Feliciana in the last decade of the 18th century. Born in Carolina, acquiring the rudiments of learning, he yearned for a better life. In the 1770s he sold his land, bought slaves, gathered up his family and set off across the mountains for the rivers leading to the Felicianas. In 1794, 18 years after leaving Carolina, the Freeland family arrived at Thompson’s Creek.”
I can’t be sure when this particular George Freeland died. The first census for George Freeland in Feliciana Parish is 1820. The members of his household are:
1 free white male under 10 years of age
1 free white male 16-18 years of age
1 free white male 16-25 years of age
1 free white male 26-44 years of age
1 free white female 16-25 years of age
4 slave males under 14 years of age
4 slave males 14-25 years of age
2 slave females 14-25 years of age
1 slave female 26-44 years of age
I am guessing the 1 white male 26-44 years of age is George Freeland. That would put his birth roughly 1776 on the high end, so it would have been his father that was the George Freeland that moved his family from the Carolinas (see last paragraph). Honestly, though, I can’t imagine it taking 18 years to actually get from the Carolinas to Feliciana (even back then), unless they were really taking their good ol’ time.
By 1830 George Freeland is gone from the census records, so I believe he had died. And I’m thinking he may have actually died not long after the 1820 census was enumerated on August 7, 1820. When Elizabeth married Peter McQueen on November 27, 1820 it was Isaac Freeland who signed the marriage record with Peter. In 1820 Isaac, who I believe to be Elizabeth’s uncle or brother, had in his household:
1 free white male 26-44 years of age
1 free white female 26-44 years of age
1 free colored female 26-44 years of age
1 slave male under 14 years of age
1 slave male 26-44 years of age
1 slave female under 14 years of age
1 slave female 14-25 years of age
I am fairly confident that George Freeland is the name of Elizabeth’s father, if only because she also had a brother named George Freeland that took care of her after Peter left.
What I keep seeing is that an Elizabeth Prather (born 1740 in North Carolina) was married to a Captain George Freeland, Sr. Looking online I am seeing their marriage anywhere from 1758 in Alabama to 1787 in Florida (West Florida Territory, to be exact…aka, Louisiana). It is acknowledged on most of these websites that Elizabeth and George had a son named George Freeland, Jr born in West Florida Territory. George Jr married Ruth Brashears, daughter of Jesse Brashears and Elizabeth Prather (yes, he married his half-sister). Now, don’t quote me on any of this because I am just discovering all of this as I type this out. There appears to be a lot of information about the Brashear family and Elizabeth Prather. I think the names George and Elizabeth are pretty good evidence for me to research this line a bit more. I hope some of the descendants have had their autosomal DNA done so I can compare!
Just to make it easier to see what I am talking about (in case it seemed tot jumbled):
George Freeland, Sr married Elizabeth Prather (who, at some point, was married to Jesse Brashears). They had a son George Freeland, Jr.
George Freeland, Jr married Ruth Brashears (his half sister, because I guess he didn’t have a lot of ladies to choose from)
It is POSSIBLE that George Jr and Ruth were the parents of George W Freeland and Elizabeth Freeland (who is my 4th great-grandmother), but I am not yet certain.
