Col. George R. Freeman

Freeman's later life ran on land and law, and part of it went into a chair at a university. Born near Frankfort, Kentucky, on June 25, 1830, he joined his grandfather in Texas in the 1840s and served as captain of Company D, Twenty-third Texas Cavalry before the Treasury Guards. He moved to Hamilton about 1875, practiced law and became a landowner. With income from his Austin and Hamilton property he endowed a Bible chair at Baylor University. He died on December 14, 1910, was buried in Hamilton, and was reinterred in Austin's Oakwood Cemetery about 1915.

What the plaque says

Col. George R. Freeman (1830-1910) Kentucky native George Freeman came to Texas in the 1840s. He fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, then came to Austin as captain of the treasury guards. That group of about thirty former Confederate soldiers defended the state treasury from an 1865 robbery. Though the robbers escaped with $17,000, Freeman's group was recognized for saving the remainder of the treasury, preventing possible impairment to the Texas economy. In the mid-1870s, Freeman moved to Hamilton and practiced law; his most famous case was the Greer County dispute, in which he represented Texas before the U. S. Supreme Court. Freeman was also active in community and church affairs until his death. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hamilton County Courthouse — steps away
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.
• Meridian State Park — 28 mi
  A 505-acre park in Bosque County where World War I veterans of a Civilian Conservation Corps company dammed Bee Creek in 1933-34 for a 72-acre lake and cut stone buildings around it.

More markers nearby

• Elise Waerenskjold — steps away
• Elise Waerenskjold — 0.4 mi
• Ann Whitney — 0.5 mi
• John J. ("Jack") Durham — 0.5 mi