Freedman - Harry - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

Source: Crawfordsville Journal Review 5 May 1970 p 1 typed by Walt W

Harry Freedman, 81, Crawfordsville civic leader and retired businessman, died at 5 a.m. Tuesday in Billings Hospital at Chicago. He had been a patient in the hospital about three weeks and had undergone surgery for a gastric carcinoma last Wednesday. He operated Freedman's Clothing Store here for 33 years. He sold his business in 1955 but continued active in his many civic endeavors. Mr. Freedman was honored by Montgomery County Post No. 1431, Veterans of Foreign Wars, as Crawfordsville's outstanding citizen of 1949. A citation prepared for that occasion said in part: "In your many years as a citizen of Crawfordsville and Montgomery County your name has become a symbol of help to those in need and distress. You have given much of your time, energy and personal finances to humanitarian causes. This you have done from the heart—sincerely and cheerfully —always with the highest integrity and without publicity or acclaim. "In promoting the efficient organization of charities and welfare groups, and in personally and privately giving your help to fellow citizens less fortunate than yourself, you have demonstrated the highest order of citizenship." Mr. Freedman was of the originators of the Crawfordsville Community Chest, now a part of the Crawfordsville United Community Fund, Inc. He was a member of its board of directors. Other organizations in which he had been active over the years include the Montgomery County Tuberculosis Association; Lew Wallace District, Boy Scouts of America; The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, and the Montgomery Chapter of the American Red Cross. He was a member of B'nai Brith at Lafayette. Mr. Freedman was a former president of the Utility Service Board which operates the Crawfordsville Electric Light and Power Co. Mr. Freedman was born Aug. 15, 1888, in the Crimea which is in the southern part of Russia. In 1905, when he was 17 years of age, he was encouraged, due to disturbances in his homeland, to accompany three neighboring families who were coming to America. Two days after arriving in New York City he secured a job working for a tailor and three months later moved to Lafayette, where one of the families he accompanied to America was residing. Anxious to get into business for himself, Mr. Freedman rented a small room in North Ninth Street and started a tailor shop. He prospered from the start and soon moved his shop to a larger room. He was in business in Lafayette for a little more than 14 years. He came to Crawfordsville in 1921 and established a Freedman store in a room he rented in the 100 block of North Washington Street. Two years later he acquired a store in Mattoon, Ill., and in 1929 opened a store in Frankfort. Later, in 1933, he doubled the size of his store here by taking over an adjoining room. Planning retirement when he reached the age of 65, Mr. Freedman disposed of his retail store in Mattoon in December of 1953 and on Feb. 1, 1954 he disposed of his Frankfort business. He sold his Crawfordsville store in September of 1955 and it is now known as Rapp's. Mr. Freedman was married Dec. 26, 1909, at Lafayette to Sophia Feinstein. Surviving are the widow; two daughters, Mrs. Francis (Beatrice) de Regniers of New York City and Mrs. A.A. (Lillian) Goldman of Washington, D.C.; a son, Dr. Daniel X. Freedman of Chicago, Ill.; two grandchildren, Stephen Goldman and Kathy Goldman, and one great-grandson, Daniel Stephen Goldman, all of Washington, D.C. Private religious services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Sons of Abraham Cemetery at Lafayette. Memorial services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Wabash College Chapel by Rev. M.V. Oggle of Ramsey, N.J., a former pastor of the Wabash Avenue Presbyterian Church who was an old friend of Mr. Freedman's. The family requests that memorials be in the form of donations to the Crawfordsville United Community Fund.

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