BIO:  Eli H. Free, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Newberry Township, Pg 151

ELI H. FREE was born in 1825, in York Co., Penn., and is the eldest of eleven 
children of Adam and Mary (Hake) Free, natives of York County, and of German 
descent, respectively, and both deceased.  The father was a carpenter, but at the 
age of twenty-five years, began farming and running a distillery, which he 
followed until his death in 1854.  Eli H. was brought up a farmer, received a 
good education, and taught school for two terms, when the free school system was 
first introduced.  In 1847 he married Mary Krafft, who died in 1865,  They had 
six children:  Oliver, Mary, Emma, Amanda, Sarah and Ida.  In 1863, when the 
rebels came to York, Penn., they passed his residence, then in Manchester 
Township, and took one of his best horses.  In the spring of 1863 he moved to 
York, Penn., and established a hotel, now known as the Pennsylvania House.  He 
remained there six years, when he sold the hotel, and moved to his present farm, 
located in Newberry Township, which contains 112 acres of land in a high state of 
cultivation, and finely situated.  Mr. Free’s second marriage was, in 1868, to 
Catherine Cassel.  They have had three children:  Clara E., Louisa and Daniel H. 
(deceased).  Mr. and Mrs. Free belong to the Lutheran Church.  He is a member of 
the I. O. R. M. Lodge 37, of York, Penn.  In politics he is a Republican.  He was 
a member of the school board in Manchester Township, and is a member of the board 
where he now resides.  He served as justice of the peace in Manchester for five 
years, receiving his commission from Gov. William F. Johnson.  He also enrolled 
Manchester Township in the fall of 1861, for the draft.