Many sources do not mention the years Daniel Freeman, first homesteader, spent in New York State as a child. In fact, Daniel lived there from about the age of 6 months to about age eight or nine.

Daniel's father, Samuel Freeman, is said to have been the son of long-time Genesee County, New York, residents Elkanah Freeman and Hannah Dunham Freeman.

Grandfather Elkanah Freeman is said to have been born in Canaan, Connecticut in 1772. He and his family appear to have been in Rutland Co., Vermont, at the time of the 1800 U.S. census -- this is where his son, Samuel Freeman, is said to have been born. By the time of the 1810 U.S. census, Elkanah Freeman and family are found in Warsaw, Genesee County, New York. They then lived for more than 30 years in the town of Bethany, Genesee County, and they are buried there. They are last found in Bethany in the 1850 U.S. census, in the home of their son, Elisha:

• Elkanah Freeman, age 78 ?, born in Connecticut, and
• Hannah Freeman, age 74, born in New York.

Elkanah and Hannah Freeman are buried in West Bethany Cemetery. Link to webpage by Dawn Pocock-Dilcher. Her website show the inscriptions (copied from the book "Tombstone Inscriptions from the Abandoned Cemeteries and Farm Burial of Genesee County" by LaVerne C. Cooley in 1952) as:

Freeman

Elkanah, d. 13 Jun 1852 at 81y

Hannah, wife of Elkanah, d. 14 Jun 1855 at 79y

There is another website which mentions the will of Elkanah Freeman, from Bethany, New York.

Note on possible ancestry of Elkanah Freeman:

www.freemangenealogy.com, by Raymond Freeman, goes into the Freemans of Canaan, CT, in great detail. On reading it, I wonder if our Elkanah Freeman may have been the son of Elisha Freeman (son of another Elkanah and Hannah Freeman), who fought in the Revolutionary War. According to p. 113 of www.freemangenealogy.com, Elisha did have a son named Elkanah, who was born in Canaan in 1772 (this is the same year and birthplace that our family sources have for our Elkanah), but his Elkanah disappears from Canaan by the time of the 1800 census (this is when our Elkanah turns up in the Rutland Co., VT census). Homesteader Daniel Freeman apparently had a Revolutionary War musket which he said belonged to his great-grandfather -- was his great-grandfather Elisha Freeman? This needs more research.

From the History of Gage County, Nebraska, by Hugh J. Dobbs, Lincoln, NE, 1918 -- page 116:

"Daniel Freeman was of the sturdiest kind of New England stock. His ancestors almost from the beginning of this country have been prominent and influential citizens of their communities. Many of them, including his great-grandfather, had fought in the Revolutionary war as well as in the war of 1812 and the Indian wars of the country. He himself possessed many admirable and heroic qualities. The last visit paid to him by the author of this volume some time before his death was at his home on the old homestead. He was ill, suffering from ailments from which he never recovered. Lying on his couch, he discoursed eloquently about his family history and pointed out upon the walls of his room and in its corners, many relics of Revolutionary days, among them his great-grandfather's flintlock musket, carried in some of the first battles for liberty in Massachusetts."

Continuing on... Daniel's father, Samuel, made his way from Bethany, New York, to Preble County, Ohio, at about the age of 18, and there married Phoebe Willis, who was born in Ohio. They were both about 19 or 20 at the time of their marriage. Their first two children were then born in Ohio -- Susanna, b. 1824, and Daniel, b. 1826.

Shortly after Daniel's birth, this young family moved to New York, according to the book History of the State of Nebraska, first published in 1882 by The Western Historical Company, A. T. Andreas, Proprietor, Chicago, IL:

DANIEL FREEMAN, M. D. and farmer, Blakeley Precinct, was born in Ohio in 1826. At the age of six months, his parents moved to New York, and located in Genesee County, remaining there until 1835, when they settled in Knox County, Ill. In 1847, Mr. Freeman began the study of medicine at Peoria, Ill., remaining there eighteen months, when he entered the Eclectic Institute at Cincinnati and graduated in 1849, locating in Ottawa, Ill., and commenced the practice of medicine, remaining there until 1861, when he enlisted in the Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry as a private. Soon after, he was transferred to the secret service, remaining until the close of the war. In 1862, he came to Nebraska in the employ of the Government, and while in the State located on Section 26, Town 4, Range 5, and put up a house and moved his family there January 1, 1863, at 12 o'clock at night. He took out the first homestead papers issued by the Government, having homestead papers No. 1, and has lived on the place ever since. He has added to the farm until he has 840 acres, situated on Cub Creek, on Sections 23, 26 and 34. He has been County Commissioner two terms, County Sheriff one term, and Justice of the Peace in his precinct several terms. He was married in February, 1865, to Miss E. A. Suiter. They have five children--Eliza J., Samuel, James H., John and Frank. Previous to this, he was married in 1853 to Elizabeth Walber, of Ottawa, Ill. They had three children--Charles, Gerald and Lourella.

The 1850 U.S. census of Abingdon, Knox Co., Illinois, supports this and gives a good clue as to the family's movements. It shows that Daniel's younger brother by 2 years, Allen, was indeed born in New York State:

• Samuel Freeman, age 46, farmer, born in Vermont;
• Phebe Freeman, age 45, born in Ohio;
• Susanna Freeman, age 25, born in Ohio;
• Allen Freeman, age 22, laborer, born in New York;
• James Freeman, age 11, born in Illinois;
• Melissa Gift(?), age 7, born in Illinois.

Daniel Freeman, age 24 at the time of this census, had left home. Also missing are the Freemans' other sons -- Daniel Freeman himself reported that he had five brothers, at least four of whom died young, and one sister (Susanna, who married Walter Richmond and remained in Abingdon). We know that James died young, and it would appear from Daniel's comments that Allen may have also died young, or may have been the brother who survived. Would any other researcher be able to contribute information about Daniel's brothers, or about the little girl Melissa Gift (could be Lift, List, Sift, or similar)?

From the Portrait and Biographical Album of Gage County, Nebraska -- Chicago, Chapman Brothers, 1888. Page 521, from the entry for Daniel Freeman:

"His father, Samuel Freeman (who died on the 6th of February, in the year 1887, at Abingdon, Knox Co., Ill., at the advanced age of eighty-four years), was born in Vermont in the early part of the present century, and came of a hardy, old New England ancestry. While yet a single man he went to Ohio, where he married after a time a Miss Phoebe Willis, who is a native of that State, and is yet living at her home in Abingdon, at the good old age of eighty-four years, still in possession of her mental faculties, and cheerful and happy as is her natural disposition. In 1835 the parents of our subject had moved to the above-named city, where they were among the early pioneers of Knox County, and for many years prominent citizens and successful farmers, the father being prominent as a politician in behalf of the old Whig and Republican principles for many years.

"Our subject is the eldest but one of a family of six sons and one daughter, all his brothers now being deceased, while the sister, who is the eldest of the family, is yet living on a farm near Abingdon, the wife of Walter Richmond. Four of the brothers of our subject died when young and single men, one of them, James H., having served as a private in the 83rd Illinois Infantry during the Rebellion, and dying from exposure and sickness at Ft. Donelson."

Further evidence of the time spent in New York:

The ATLAS MAP OF KNOX COUNTY, ILLINOIS, Andreas, Lyter & Company, Davenport, 1870, 91 pages (see page on USGenweb) lists Samuel Freeman as an Abingdon retired man, born in Vermont, and coming to Knox County in 1834 from Genesee County, New York.

One final piece of evidence remains regarding Daniel's childhood in New York State. According to the notation in the History of the State of Nebraska (see above), we might expect to find the Freemans in the 1830 U.S. census of New York. The 1830 census does have the drawback of not including names of all family members -- only the head of the family. However, there is an entry for a Samuel Freeman in Attica, Genesee County, New York (not far from Bethany).

The family of Samuel Freeman:

• Boys under 5 years old: 2 (Daniel, age 4, and Allen, age 1-2?)
• Men age 20-29: 1 (Samuel, age 26?)
• Girls age 5-9 years old: 1 (Susanna, age 5-6?)
• Women age 20-29: 1 (Phoebe, age 25-26?)

The ages of the various family members fit, and no similar family can be found in Genesee Co. in 1820, 1840 or 1850.

It appears from these various pieces of evidence that Daniel Freeman spent several childhood years in New York State, in close proximity to his Freeman grandparents, Elkanah and Hannah. As a young boy of seven or eight, he may well have spent time with his grandparents and heard from them the stories of his family's New England history which he later, as an old man, told visitors to his Nebraska homestead.