BIO:  Henry 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, Manchester Township, Pg 134

HENRY FREE was born in Manchester Township, August 25, 1831.  His parents were 
Adam and Mary (Hake) Free, natives, respectively, of Maryland and Pennsylvania, 
and of Scotch and German descent.  They reared six sons and five daughters.  
Henry is the fourth son and child.  He was brought up on a farm and educated in 
the common schools.  At the age of twenty-four or twenty-five he began life for 
himself.  He traded for some time in stock, but in 1856 he commenced distilling 
at Goldsborough, Penn., and in partnership with his brother, Augustus, has 
followed it since.  They began with a capacity of 100 bushels per day, but at the 
beginning of taxation reduced the capacity.  He was married in Manchester 
Township, March 1, 1857, to Leah Rutter, daughter of John Rutter (deceased).  She 
died in November, 1881, leaving four children:  George B. M., M.D., at 
Philadelphia; Kate, at home; Samuel, a student at York Collegiate Institute, and 
Harry, also a student at York.  Mr. Free belongs, as did also his wife, to the 
Lutheran Church; in politics he is a Republican, and has been elected township 
auditor several times, and is the present incumbent.  He was one of the 
organizers of the State Capital Oil Company, and for many years one of its 
directors.  He left Manchester Township for Newberry Township in 1858, and in 
1869 he came to where he has since lived upon a small farm one mile north of 
York.  He is partner in three fine farms near Goldsborough, aggregating about 400 
acres.  Mr. Free made all his property by his own industry.  His daughter is 
keeping house for him.  His father, who died in 1854, came to Pennsylvania in 
1818, and worked some as a carpenter, then commenced farming and distilling near 
Emigsville; here he died at the age of fifty-eight years, possessed of property 
worth upward of $75,000, and yet, at the age of thirty, he had nothing and had 
done nothing.  He was once elected county commissioner.