# Freedom, Cattaraugus County, New York Set in the rolling farmland of western New York, along the valley of Clear Creek, the town of Freedom drew settling families in the decades after its first roads were laid. For the Strong, Newman, and Crandall families, it was home across three generations, a place where names recurred in the same households, the same churches, and the same election district for the better part of a century. ## The Strongs Ezra B. Strong, a native of Vermont, came from Monroe County to the neighboring town of Farmersville in 1832 and settled on a farm. There he raised a large family with his wife **Eleanor Jane Lane**, daughter of Matthias Lane, who died on 2 July 1855. Their many children scattered into the surrounding country, but several kept close to Freedom. Among them was **Jacob Lane Strong**, born 20 March 1826 in Monroe County, who came to Cattaraugus County as a boy in 1832 and made his life as a farmer in Freedom, where he lived through the 1870s and 1880. He served as a deacon of the Baptist church for more than thirty years. His wife, **Phebe Louise Phelps**, daughter of James Phelps, kept house alongside him in Freedom into the 1870s and 1880s and remained in the area through 1900. Their sons and Jacob himself all voted in the same election district — a small measure of how firmly the family had planted itself here. Ezra's other children appear in the town as well. **Ezra Brewster Strong Jr.**, listed in Farmersville in 1850, worked as a carpenter and farmer, still practicing his trade in the 1875 gazetteer. **Walter Van Cleat Strong** was living here in 1860. It was Walter whom **Jeanette "Jennie" Lydia Newman** married; born 12 December 1859 in Farmersville, Jennie lived in the area as a child in 1860 and 1875 before moving west with her husband. She remained close to family memory long afterward, remembered warmly as a grandmother. ## The Newmans The Newman family was among the town's steadier presences. **Daniel D. Newman** appears in Freedom across every count from 1850 through 1875, a farmer whose civic work left a lasting mark: as commissioner of highways he oversaw the erection of the first iron bridge in the town of Freedom in 1877, spanning Clear Creek at Sandusky. In a town proud of its roads, this was no small thing. **Franklin H. Newman** lived in Freedom through the 1850s and 1860s and died in May 1872, buried in the town. His family carried on locally. **Chester C. Newman** made the longest home of anyone here, appearing in Freedom from 1855 until his death on 4 February 1931 — three-quarters of a century. He worked as a grocer at Sandusky, and his wife **Sarah Jane Cornwell** shared that long residence from 1875 into the 1920s. Chester's presence in count after count — 1900, 1910, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930 — traces the arc of an entire lifetime rooted in one place. Other Newmans fill out the household years: **Lucy Newman**, present from 1850 through 1900; **Hannah Elizabeth Easton**, here in 1860 and 1875; and the children **Lillie Newman** (born 1855), **Mabel Newman**, and **Carl William Newman**, all of the town in the 1870s. ## The Crandalls The Crandall family clustered in Freedom around the middle of the century. **Henry Sprague Crandall** died here on 3 March 1845, an early loss. **Henry S. Crandall** lived in the town from 1850 through 1870 and died 30 July 1873. Alongside them in the 1850 and 1860 counts were **Priscilla B. Crandall**, **Anna Eliza Crandall**, **Jacob A. Crandall**, **William H. Crandall**, **Achsah Charlotte Crandall**, and **Benjamin Guile Crandall** — a full family presence in the mid-century town. ## Others of the Town Several more lives touched Freedom in these years. **Alice Powell**, whose residence in the town stretches from 1840 to 1875, died 18 December 1878. **Ira W. Preston** lived here in the 1860s and 1870s and died 29 November 1882, buried in the town. **Martha J. Guile**, present in 1850, died young on 7 January 1858. **Minnie M. Cook** appears among the households in 1875. --- Across these families, Freedom was farm country and small crossroads life — Sandusky with its grocer and its creek, the Baptist deacon and his voting sons, the iron bridge built by a Newman's hand. For a few of the young, like Jennie, it was a childhood place left behind when the family moved west; for others, like Chester Newman, it was the whole of a life.