The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1842-08-10


or and tngc,her participated in the village
sports. Their union seemed to be such
one as would insure perpetual happiness
-undying love. The poet says
"But happy they, the happiest of their kind,
Whom gentle stars unite, and in one fate,
Their hearts, their fortunes and their beings
bIend'
But, alas! though early association and
similarity of tastes and ages would seem
to have combined to render MIR. Freeman
and his wife bIissrul and happy, feelings
iapparently at war with nature rose up and
made them miserable. After having lived
together for some % years, and alter nav
ING given to the world eleven children, the
marriage vow, mutually taken, was bro
ken, and the parties who pledged them
selves to liveard love together i'll sickness
and in heallh-hrough good and evil Tor
tune became severed, hisunitcd.
Freeman, it appears, became the soliish
slave Of inlemperance, and, as necessary
consequence, failed to discharge the dulles
incumbent on every .i,usband-on every
father. The mother (Mrs. Freeman as
mothers ever do-clung to her children
and used her every exertion to supply
them with those necessities and that edu'
cation and protection which II was the du-
" Of father 10 provide.
Freeman would sometimes come and
take from his wife the youngest members
Of the family; and this would seem TO have
been done more with a view of narrowing
the mothers feelings than for any pater-
nal affection which he felt fur his children.
On Que occasion he took off the two
younger children and placed them at the
house of sister of his. Their mother
fee ling suliciluus for their welfare, sent
one Of her sons, young man II yrais
old, after them who brought them back TO
their mother. They had not long left
when Freeman returned 10 his sisters aud
found them gune--iris mind dethroned by
rum and his soul fired by an unfounded
jealousy, (for this cursed passion, too,
preyrd on lrim) he hastily seized his riil",
swearing that he would take the life of his
own son! He lnadrd his piece with two
balls, hurried after his children with the
design Of spiliiug their blood, but failed to
overtake them.
Having SO failed. and having determine
ed To Il" d foul and bloody ed, he went
on to The house of his wife, whom he found
engaged II, her domestic dutics-hr level
ed his rife at her, and ere she had lime to
say, "God have mercy OH mel! he lodged
the fatal bullets in her body. She lived
but a few hours afterwards.
This. as we said on Tuesday, was on the
10Th of June, 1897. lie fled. The au-
thorilics Of the State offered reward for
him, and he was taken in The state OF Ala.
bama. He was sent back and Imprisoned
in the district Jail of EdgelieId. From this
he managed to escape bef"re the lime tor
his trial came on, and made his way through
Tennessee and Mississippi to this city
Here, being an active mechanic, he work.
ed for considerable time with Mr.. Sew.
ell, the builder, and in the construction of
the Nashville Railroad. But though he
found employment, he found no peace
the canker.worm of guilt gnawed al his
heart, and the spirit Of a murdered wife
haunted his working thoughts and sleeping
hours. Urged ON, therefore, by spirit
of disquietudr, he went to Texas; from
thence he travelled with a caravan to MeXi-
co-worked al various empI"yments there,
but still so per,urbed was his mind that
the labor of the day brought not sleep to
his eycIids.
In endeavoring to fly, as it were, from
his own inlamy, he came back to this city
remained here we know not how long
-Iefl and was making his way through
the interior oflhe Stale, when he was ar
rested in the parish Of Rapdes on the 18th
instant!
Aud here new feature in this eXtraor-
dinary story presents itself to the renec-
tive mind, and one showing forth. in col
ors too perccptIbIe to be mistaken, the re-
iribulivc justice that belongs to Omnipo-
tence.
At the time that Freeman murdered
his wife, she had All only brother, named
John Cran ford, residing in the stale of
Alabama, some five hundred miles distant
from Edseheld Having heard of The fatal
affair and Of Freernan's escape from prison
he left his home, resolved t" pursue him
unto death, and ayengr sisters blood.
He followed in his wake in this city, Texas
and elsewhere; but never could he lay Iii,
eyes on him.
Alter n iuur years' crusade of this kind