Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/434

NAME FREER 412 FREER ever reverted to medicine, so in 1789 he resumed regular practice with much success and became distinguished as a surgeon. In 1804 he retired from all medical work. He was an active member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, from 1795 to 1815, when he resigned, and was interested in historical and literary societies. He was one of the best extempore speakers of his day. Twice mar- ried, Dr. Freeman had twenty children. He died September 20, 1827, eighty-six years old. He was a good host, lived in luxury, and left no writings behind him. Howard A. Kelly. L'niv. of Pennsylvania Bull., 1901, vol. xiv, 36-37. Packard. Dictny. of Amer. Biog. F. S. Drake, Boston, 1872. Freer, Joseph Warren (1816-1877). Of this Chicago surgeon, Joseph Warren Freer, one biographer gives just the dry facts, the other some of the struggles with for- tune which form the basis of his life's ro- mance. One Elias Freer, of Washington Coun- ty, mechanic, weds Polly Paine of Vermont, on the tenth of August, 1816, at Fort Ann, New York. Joseph Warren comes into the world, leads the life of many country boys, helping, until he is sixteen, in his father's busi- ness, and attending winter school. The future surgeon has a taste of a dry-goods store ; of the drug-shop of his uncle. Dr. Lemuel C. Paine, where he picks up a little medicine. Meanwhile his family buy a claim — Forked Creek — in Wilmington, Illinois, and Joseph quits medicine, and for nine years lives a free hard-working life on the farm. In 1844 he marries Emmelinc, daughter of Phineas Holden, and his wife dies two years later, leaving him with a little boy, Henry C. Now Joseph Warren had an idea that his wife's life had been sacrificed to scanty medi- cal knowledge, so he is seized with a desire to return to the study of medicine. He mounts a load of wheat that he may not lose time, and repairs to Dr. Brainard (q. v.) in the then vil- lage of Chicago and asks to be taken as pupil. Although seeming to be rather a rustic speci- men, this young widower from the farm. Dr. Brainard was wise in taking him, and Joseph graduated at Rush Medical College in 184S. After this he spent his life there as demonstra- tor of anatomy, professor of physiology and miscroscopic anatomy, and president. Besides other appointments, he was on the staff of the Mercy Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital. His practice was devoted largely to surgery. He per- formed nearly all the operations of note, in- cluding excision of the knee-joint, the el- bow-joint with the entire ulna and head of the radius. This was before J. M. Carno- chan's case (q. v.). In June, 1849, he married Catherine Gat- ter of Wiirtemberg, Germany, and had a daughter and three sons. Two sons became physicians, Paul Caspar (q. v.) and Dr. Otto Freer, laryngologist, of Chicago; the eldest son, Frederick Warren, was an artist. . good many months each year, from 1868 to 1871, were passed in foreign clinics, with the result of much added brain power and a large col- lection of curiosities, the latter all swept away in the Chicago lire. He died on the twelfth of April, 1877, when si-xty-one years old. D.WINA Watersox. « Early Medical Chicago. J. N. Hyde,_ Chicago. 1879* Distinguished Phys. and Surgs. of Chicago. F. M. Sperry, Chicago, 1904. Freer, Paul Caspar (1862-1912). The Freer family is of Dutch origin. Dr. Joseph Warren Freer (q. v.), the father of Paul Caspar, removed from an Illinois farm to Chicago, graduated at Rush Medical Col- lege, was a professor there and ultimately its president. His wife, Catherine Gaiter, was a highly educated lady of German extraction. Their son, Paul Caspar, was born in Chicago, March 27, 1862. He received his early edu- cation in the native country of his mother, but returned to the United Slates lo attend the High School of Chicago, from which he graduated at the head of his class. He studied medicine at the Rush Medical College and ob- tained the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1882. Freer showed very early a great pred- ilection for chemistry. To perfect himself in this branch he again went to Europe and studied under ihe celebrated chemist, Bacyer, at the University of Munich, which bestowed upon him the degree of Ph. D. suinma cnm laude in 1887. After spending a few monllis at Owens College in Manchester as assistant instructor in chemistry, he returned to Amer- ica and was at once appointed instruclor in chemistry at Tufts College. In 1889 he ac- cepted a position at the Universiiy of Michi- gan as lecturer in general chemistry and was appointed professor of general chemistry in the following year. In 1891 Dr. Freer married Mi3> Agnes May Leas. The union proved to be a very happy one. Freer was now already known as one of the foremost chemists of the country. In 1901 he accepted the important position of Superintendent of Government Labora- tories in the Philippine Islands. Here he