Freeri  
 
 

Transcribed from "History of North Washington, an illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties", published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.


     IRA FREER, an enterprising and successful merchant of Mission, Chelan county, although still a young man, may be classed with the pioneers of Washington.  He is the son of Harvey and Mary (Brothers) Freer, both natives of Ohio, where our subject was born, in Ashland county, February 2, 1863.
     For many generations the Freers have been influential people in Ohio, engaging in mercantile, banking and professional pursuits.  The father, Harvey Freer, died in 1900; the mother still resides in Ohio.  This state, also, was the home of our subject until he reached the age of twenty-one years.  On September 12, 1884, he landed in Wenatchee, and lived with his uncles, Frank and David Freer, pioneer settlers of the Wenatchee valley.  Three years from that period he pre-empted a claim, cut logs at Pine Flat, floated them down the river, purchased a thousand feet of lumber at forty dollars a thousand, paid twenty-five cents a pound for nails, and erected a substantial house on his claim.  He raised a little fruit, but the market was uncertain, and it was not until the railroad invaded the locality that he began to realize a living from his place.  He sold out later, bought another place, and this he traded for city property in Mission.  An attack of appendicitis laid him up for two years, during which time he accomplished little or nothing.  He served one year as road supervisor, and in July, 1898, engaged in the general mercantile business, which he still conducts.  He carries about twelve thousand dollars' worth of stock.  Mr. Freer has four brothers and two sisters, Bently, Joseph, James, Alberta, Levina Oswalt, and Cordelia Middaugh.
     To Miss Lydia R. Binehower, a native of Ashland county, Ohio, Mr. Freer was united in marriage in 1882.  Her father was a native of Pennsylvania, dying in 1901.  Her mother, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany, is still living.  She has one brother and five sisters, Martin L., Sarah A. Smith, Christena A. Craeger, Eliza C., Henrietta C., and Mary A.  She has one child, Cordelia A., wife of Philip Bellinger, elsewhere mentioned in this work.  Mr. and Mrs. Freer are members of the Presbyterian church.  He is a Republican, politically.
 
 

          
 

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