page_title: Daniel Freeman
section_title: Religious separation case
hierarchical_section_title: Daniel Freeman / Religious separation case
caption_attribution_description: English: The Freeman School, part of the en:Homestead National Monument of America, built in en:1872.
context_page_description: Daniel Freeman was an American homesteader and Civil War veteran. He was recognized as the first person to file a claim under the Homestead Act of 1862.
  Freeman was also the plaintiff in a landmark separation of church and state decision.
context_section_description: Freeman was also the plaintiff in Daniel Freeman v. John Scheve, et al., a landmark case concerning the separation of church and state. In 1899, Edith Beecher, the teacher at the nearby Freeman School, was giving religious instruction, including reading passages from the Bible, offering prayers, and leading hymns. (It is not known if this school was named after Daniel Freeman or for Thomas Freeman, an unrelated brick maker and president of the local school board.) Freeman requested that Beecher stop, and she refused, claiming that she had permission from the school board. Freeman then took his complaint to the school board, which backed Beecher.
  Freeman then filed suit in Gage County District Court, which found in favor of the school board. Freeman appealed, finally going to the Nebraska Supreme Court, which found that the actions of Beecher and the school board were unconstitutional under the Nebraska Constitution provisions (Art. I-4) concerning the separation of church and state.
caption: The Freeman school.
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