Charles B. Freney Biography This biography appears on pages 1235-1236 in "History of Dakota Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm CHARLES B. FRENEY. Charles B. Freney is proprietor of a job printing establishment in Yankton, where he has conducted business since 1900. He was born in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1874. His father, William Freney, who died at Yankton, June 28, 1897, was one of the pioneers of this section of the northwest, and was identified with the printing business from the infancy of the industry in the Dakotas. He was also among the first to become connected with journalistic interests in Sioux City and was editor and proprietor of the old Sioux City Register, which was the leading democratic paper of western Iowa and of the Dakotas through the decade between 1860 and 1870. This paper wielded a wide influence over not only state and territorial but also national affairs, being both the molder and the mirror of public opinion in the west. Mr. Freney was a man of strong convictions and never deviated from a course which he believed to be right for the individual or for the community. He labored untiringly for the best interests of the people at large and made his paper the advocate of all measures which he deemed of genuine public worth. He possessed the spirit of the pioneer and realized the opportunities afforded to the early settler to upbuild the community upon broad and stable foundations that would make for the development of a greater commonwealth. He had many devoted friends, who recognized the sterling quality of his character, and wherever he was known was spoken of in terms of the highest regard. He had a very wide acquaintance in both Sioux City and Yankton and indeed, throughout this section of the country. A native of Wisconsin, he was born near Madison on the 12th of February, 1838, and had learned the printer' trade in the office of the Argus-Democrat at Madison entering upon an apprenticeship there in 1853. Five years later he removed to Sioux City, where he continued to follow the printer's trade until he became associated with F. M. Ziebach in the publication of the Sioux City Register in 1860. The following year the firm established the Dakotan in Yankton, this being the first paper published within the territory after its organization. In 1862 Mr. Freney disposed of his interest in that journal but continued the publication of the Sioux City Register until 1872 or 1873. Not long afterward he again came to Yankton, where he continued to make his home until his death save for a brief period in 1880 when he was engaged in the publication of the Citizen of Scotland. His life work constituted a potent force in the growth and development of the section in which he made his home and he was numbered among the honored pioneer citizens, who laid broad and deep the foundation ion for the present prosperity and progress of this part of the country. On the 1st of January, 1867, he married Miss Corinthia D. Booge, a daughter of the late Charles P. Booge, of Sioux City. She still survives him, together with their son and daughter, Charles and Nellie. The son was educated in the public schools of Yankton, which he attended to the age of seventeen years, when he started out upon his business career in the capacity of devil in a printing office in Yankton. After becoming a journeyman printer he traveled over a large part of the United States, working at his trade in various towns and cities. Eventually he took up his abode in Yankton and was with the firm of Bowen & Kingsbury, on the Dakota Press and Dakotan for five years. Afterward be came associated with J. T. Sargent on the Dakota Herald of Yankton and in 1900 engaged in business on his own account as a job printer. He is now well established in this line and has one of the most completely equipped job printing offices in his part of the state, using the latest improved machinery and facilities for turning out first-class work. The product of his plant is always neat and embodies the highest standards of the printer's art, and his fair prices and honorable dealing have been features in winning him a growing success. A democrat in his political views, Mr. Freney was elected on the party's ticket to tile office of city alderman, in which he served from 1900 until 1912. He was also secretary of the fire department and there is no movement or measure instituted for the benefit of Yankton and of the state that does not receive his hearty endorsement and co- operation. He belongs to the Yankton fire department and is vice president of the South Dakota Firemen's Association. He is also well known in fraternal circles as a member of the Elks lodge No. 994, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Knights of the Maccabees and the Fraternal Order of the Mystic Circle. His religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. The various interests of his life are well balanced, making his a symmetrically rounded character, and the force of his nature and the strength of his business enterprise are winning for him a creditable position among the representative residents of Yankton.