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MERLIN CEDRIC FREEMAN

Generation 12

Merlin Cedric Freeman is our Freeman Family bloodline ancestor.

He, the second child and the second son, was born in Cherokee, Iowa on March 7, 1899 to Edgar Oscar Freeman and wife Agnes Edna (Egglefield).

His birth took: place on the Freeman Family Farm located about four miles southeast of Cherokee Town, Cherokee County, Iowa. This he told me. And this farm was actually located south of Aurelia in Pilot Township, Iowa.

His father Edgar 0 Freeman had inherited the farm from his father, Stephen Freeman, and the farm was a normal size: 90 acres. The farmhouse, built by grandfather Stephen Freeman, was 16 x 21 feet. Grandfather Stephen Freeman died in 1883, so the Edgar Oscar Freeman Family lived there at least from that time until the Federal Census of 1900 located them in Cherokee Town at 908 W Cherry Street. Nine years later they moved to Newton, Kansas and bought a farm of twice the size: 160 acres.

Merlin Cedric Freeman was very similar in appearance to his father, Edgar Oscar Freeman-full head of white hair even at" time of death; 6'1" tall, about 190#; and blue eyes. Edgar Oscar was one inch taller.

He was an active individual, even to the very end, with a sense of wanderlust, and also many unique experiences. He told me of his experience in 1906 when he was invited on the spur of the moment, by a relative, to go to San Francisco. They arrived, by train, the day after the great San Francisco earthquake had taken place, and he described to me the awe he felt when he saw car-wide cracks in the street surfaces, and the buildings with high walls peeled off.

He was mischievous as a youth. On one occasion he and his friends decided to take advantage of Halloween by placing a neighbor's Model T Ford up on a second floor roof. The problem-after all the laughter? They were caught and told they had to get the car down to the ground by themselves. That, he said, was much more trouble that getting the car up there!!!

On another occasion, he and friends were playing around with A stereopticon projector. It was nighttime, and they had one slide of the Angel Gabriel which they projected for an extended period of time on the clouds. The next day, the town was abuzz with consternation about seeing an angel in the clouds. Luckily, no one ever found out who was responsible. And he and his friends had a good laugh on the town.

In one of our 1977 tape recorded phone conversations, I asked him about his grandparents. He told me he knew nothing