Falmouth Enterprise, Friday, April 30, 1948, page 12
May 1:
On this day in 1879, in a neighborhood of Pocasset known as Putts Hollow, near the present golf course, occurred the awful Freeman murder case. Poor, deluded Charles Freeman, his mind filled with visions of the second coming of Christ, awoke from a sound sleep believing he had been ordered to make a supreme sacrifice. He convinced his wife, victim of the same religious delusion, that the moment was at hand for their clear duty. With the wife holding the lamp, he stabbed to death, in her small bed, their four-year-old daughter, Edith. The crime excited horror and alarm in the community and while Freeman and his wife were in Barnstable jail, the funeral in the little white church at Pocasset was scene of some disturbance. One year later, at Barnstable, Freeman was ordered committed to the state hospital at Danvers, and his wife freed. Three years later at Barnstable Freeman was tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was returned to Danvers, from which place he was later discharged.
Name: Edith B. Freeman
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 02 May 1879
Event Place: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Residence Place:
Address:
Gender: Female
Age: 2
Marital Status:
Occupation:
Birth Date:
Birthplace: Sandwich
Birth Year (Estimated): 1877
Burial Date:
Burial Place:
Cemetery:
Father's Name: Chas F.
Father's Titles and Terms:
Father's Birthplace: Natick
Mother's Name: Harriet E. R.
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Birthplace: Plymouth
Additional Relatives:
Spouse's Name:
Reference ID: v 310 p 19
GS Film number: 960216
Frame Number:
Digital Folder Number: 4221431
Image Number: 31
"Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N722-YHV : accessed 29 May 2013), Edith B. Freeman, 1879.
*
Massachusetts archives has an earlier birth year
Freeman Edith B. Sandwich 1874 259 20 Birth
**
Birth record:
Name: Edith B. Franman
Gender: Female
Christening Date:
Christening Place:
Birth Date: 27 Jul 1874
Birthplace: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Death Date:
Name Note:
Race: White
Father's Name:
Father's Birthplace:
Father's Age:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Birthplace:
Mother's Age:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C05431-4
System Origin: Massachusetts-EASy
GS Film number: 1428165
Reference ID: 36∼Edith Burgess Freeman, daughter of Charles Freeman and Harriet "Hattie" (Ellis) Freeman murdered by her father in a much publicized event. The father in religious devotion felt called by God to sacrifice her daughter as an indication of faith such as Abraham had been tested to sacrifice his son Isaac. I have carefully read the many news accounts and the brief history "The Cataumet Methodist Church 1769-1959" by Helen Merritt and determined that the present day Cataumet Cemetery is in fact where child Edith was buried. You can email me at [email protected] if desiring more information.
May 1:
On this day in 1879, in a neighborhood of Pocasset known as Putts Hollow, near the present golf course, occurred the awful Freeman murder case. Poor, deluded Charles Freeman, his mind filled with visions of the second coming of Christ, awoke from a sound sleep believing he had been ordered to make a supreme sacrifice. He convinced his wife, victim of the same religious delusion, that the moment was at hand for their clear duty. With the wife holding the lamp, he stabbed to death, in her small bed, their four-year-old daughter, Edith. The crime excited horror and alarm in the community and while Freeman and his wife were in Barnstable jail, the funeral in the little white church at Pocasset was scene of some disturbance. One year later, at Barnstable, Freeman was ordered committed to the state hospital at Danvers, and his wife freed. Three years later at Barnstable Freeman was tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was returned to Danvers, from which place he was later discharged.
Name: Edith B. Freeman
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 02 May 1879
Event Place: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Residence Place:
Address:
Gender: Female
Age: 2
Marital Status:
Occupation:
Birth Date:
Birthplace: Sandwich
Birth Year (Estimated): 1877
Burial Date:
Burial Place:
Cemetery:
Father's Name: Chas F.
Father's Titles and Terms:
Father's Birthplace: Natick
Mother's Name: Harriet E. R.
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Birthplace: Plymouth
Additional Relatives:
Spouse's Name:
Reference ID: v 310 p 19
GS Film number: 960216
Frame Number:
Digital Folder Number: 4221431
Image Number: 31
"Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N722-YHV : accessed 29 May 2013), Edith B. Freeman, 1879.
*
Massachusetts archives has an earlier birth year
Freeman Edith B. Sandwich 1874 259 20 Birth
**
Birth record:
Name: Edith B. Franman
Gender: Female
Christening Date:
Christening Place:
Birth Date: 27 Jul 1874
Birthplace: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Death Date:
Name Note:
Race: White
Father's Name:
Father's Birthplace:
Father's Age:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Birthplace:
Mother's Age:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C05431-4
System Origin: Massachusetts-EASy
GS Film number: 1428165
Reference ID: 36∼Edith Burgess Freeman, daughter of Charles Freeman and Harriet "Hattie" (Ellis) Freeman murdered by her father in a much publicized event. The father in religious devotion felt called by God to sacrifice her daughter as an indication of faith such as Abraham had been tested to sacrifice his son Isaac. I have carefully read the many news accounts and the brief history "The Cataumet Methodist Church 1769-1959" by Helen Merritt and determined that the present day Cataumet Cemetery is in fact where child Edith was buried. You can email me at [email protected] if desiring more information.
Falmouth Enterprise, Friday, April 30, 1948, page 12
May 1:
On this day in 1879, in a neighborhood of Pocasset known as Putts Hollow, near the present golf course, occurred the awful Freeman murder case. Poor, deluded Charles Freeman, his mind filled with visions of the second coming of Christ, awoke from a sound sleep believing he had been ordered to make a supreme sacrifice. He convinced his wife, victim of the same religious delusion, that the moment was at hand for their clear duty. With the wife holding the lamp, he stabbed to death, in her small bed, their four-year-old daughter, Edith. The crime excited horror and alarm in the community and while Freeman and his wife were in Barnstable jail, the funeral in the little white church at Pocasset was scene of some disturbance. One year later, at Barnstable, Freeman was ordered committed to the state hospital at Danvers, and his wife freed. Three years later at Barnstable Freeman was tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was returned to Danvers, from which place he was later discharged.
Name: Edith B. Freeman
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 02 May 1879
Event Place: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Residence Place:
Address:
Gender: Female
Age: 2
Marital Status:
Occupation:
Birth Date:
Birthplace: Sandwich
Birth Year (Estimated): 1877
Burial Date:
Burial Place:
Cemetery:
Father's Name: Chas F.
Father's Titles and Terms:
Father's Birthplace: Natick
Mother's Name: Harriet E. R.
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Birthplace: Plymouth
Additional Relatives:
Spouse's Name:
Reference ID: v 310 p 19
GS Film number: 960216
Frame Number:
Digital Folder Number: 4221431
Image Number: 31
"Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N722-YHV : accessed 29 May 2013), Edith B. Freeman, 1879.
*
Massachusetts archives has an earlier birth year
Freeman Edith B. Sandwich 1874 259 20 Birth
**
Birth record:
Name: Edith B. Franman
Gender: Female
Christening Date:
Christening Place:
Birth Date: 27 Jul 1874
Birthplace: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Death Date:
Name Note:
Race: White
Father's Name:
Father's Birthplace:
Father's Age:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Birthplace:
Mother's Age:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C05431-4
System Origin: Massachusetts-EASy
GS Film number: 1428165
Reference ID: 36∼Edith Burgess Freeman, daughter of Charles Freeman and Harriet "Hattie" (Ellis) Freeman murdered by her father in a much publicized event. The father in religious devotion felt called by God to sacrifice her daughter as an indication of faith such as Abraham had been tested to sacrifice his son Isaac. I have carefully read the many news accounts and the brief history "The Cataumet Methodist Church 1769-1959" by Helen Merritt and determined that the present day Cataumet Cemetery is in fact where child Edith was buried. You can email me at [email protected] if desiring more information.
May 1:
On this day in 1879, in a neighborhood of Pocasset known as Putts Hollow, near the present golf course, occurred the awful Freeman murder case. Poor, deluded Charles Freeman, his mind filled with visions of the second coming of Christ, awoke from a sound sleep believing he had been ordered to make a supreme sacrifice. He convinced his wife, victim of the same religious delusion, that the moment was at hand for their clear duty. With the wife holding the lamp, he stabbed to death, in her small bed, their four-year-old daughter, Edith. The crime excited horror and alarm in the community and while Freeman and his wife were in Barnstable jail, the funeral in the little white church at Pocasset was scene of some disturbance. One year later, at Barnstable, Freeman was ordered committed to the state hospital at Danvers, and his wife freed. Three years later at Barnstable Freeman was tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He was returned to Danvers, from which place he was later discharged.
Name: Edith B. Freeman
Titles and Terms:
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 02 May 1879
Event Place: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Residence Place:
Address:
Gender: Female
Age: 2
Marital Status:
Occupation:
Birth Date:
Birthplace: Sandwich
Birth Year (Estimated): 1877
Burial Date:
Burial Place:
Cemetery:
Father's Name: Chas F.
Father's Titles and Terms:
Father's Birthplace: Natick
Mother's Name: Harriet E. R.
Mother's Titles and Terms:
Mother's Birthplace: Plymouth
Additional Relatives:
Spouse's Name:
Reference ID: v 310 p 19
GS Film number: 960216
Frame Number:
Digital Folder Number: 4221431
Image Number: 31
"Massachusetts, Deaths, 1841-1915," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N722-YHV : accessed 29 May 2013), Edith B. Freeman, 1879.
*
Massachusetts archives has an earlier birth year
Freeman Edith B. Sandwich 1874 259 20 Birth
**
Birth record:
Name: Edith B. Franman
Gender: Female
Christening Date:
Christening Place:
Birth Date: 27 Jul 1874
Birthplace: Sandwich, Massachusetts
Death Date:
Name Note:
Race: White
Father's Name:
Father's Birthplace:
Father's Age:
Mother's Name:
Mother's Birthplace:
Mother's Age:
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: C05431-4
System Origin: Massachusetts-EASy
GS Film number: 1428165
Reference ID: 36∼Edith Burgess Freeman, daughter of Charles Freeman and Harriet "Hattie" (Ellis) Freeman murdered by her father in a much publicized event. The father in religious devotion felt called by God to sacrifice her daughter as an indication of faith such as Abraham had been tested to sacrifice his son Isaac. I have carefully read the many news accounts and the brief history "The Cataumet Methodist Church 1769-1959" by Helen Merritt and determined that the present day Cataumet Cemetery is in fact where child Edith was buried. You can email me at [email protected] if desiring more information.
Inscription
Inscription on coffin as reported in Boston Globe 5 May 1879 page 8 : "Little Edie lived only fifty-seven months. She shall surely rise again. John vi. 39"
Gravesite Details
Note for Grave Site Details section:
Surveys of the cemetery have not located a grave marker for Edith Freeman.
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