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Submitted by Cheryl VanWormer 






					TRISTRAM FREEMAN.

	Tristram Freeman was born in Minot, Cumberland Co., Me., Feb. 4, 1816.  His father, 
Samuel Freeman, was a native of the same town, and a farmer by occupation.  He did his country 
good service as a private soldier in the war of 1812, and died at the good old age of 
eighty-seven years highly esteemed for this integrity.  He reared a family of eleven children, 
Tristram being the third.  At the age of twenty he left home, and apprenticed himself to the 
trade of shoemaker; after the completion of his indentures he followed his trade for several 
years, working in Bridgewater, Mass., and other cities.
	In November, 1840, he left his home in Maine with a one-horse wagon and a stock of 
oil-cloths for South Carolina, where he remained until 1841.  An elder brother, Samuel, had 
settled in Portland, Ionia Co., and Tristram resolved to join him.  He left South Carolina in 
July of 1841 with his one-horse wagon, and arrived in Portland in September. He worked for his 
brother, who was a carpenter by trade, for some time.  He then went back to his trade, which he 
followed until 1850, when he started for California by the overland route.  He remained in 
California three years, and returned to Portland and engaged in mercantile pursuits in company 
with Hezekiah Smith.  The firm prosecuted a successful business for several years, and upon their
dissolution Mr. Freeman engaged in farming, which avocation he has since pursued.  The life of 
Mr. Freeman has been comparatively uneventful, and marked by few incidents save such as occur to 
most men.  He has never sought to attain prominence in any
 way.  His sole ambition has been to perfect a valuable record as a citizen, and to amass a 
comfortable competency for old age.  He has done his part in the development of Portland, and is 
in every way worthy of the honorable position he holds among its best citizens.



This biography is taken from "HISTORY OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, MICHIGAN" 
by John S. Schenck. Philadelphia:  D. W. Ensign & Co., 1881. Page 338.  Portland.