Early Settlers: Dr. William Freeman

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.

An early doctor of Fullerton, William Freeman was born in Medina County, Ohio in 1841. In 1861, at age 20, he enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War. As a soldier in the infantry saw action in a number of important battles including the battle of Shiloh, Stone River (in which he received a gunshot wound through the right hand), and the battle of Chicamauga, where he was permanently disabled by a shot through the body. 

He recovered for a while in a hospital in Chattanooga, and was eventually taken home by his father on a stretcher. After some recovery, he was made a sergeant of sanitary police at Totten Field Hospital in Louisville. 

Before he enlisted, Freeman had began to study medicine. After he was honorably discharged, he continued his medical studies, graduating from Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1867. 

He worked as a doctor in Indiana for twenty-five years, often riding horseback over long distances to see patients. During these years, he also served for a couple of terms in the state legislature.

“Still suffering from the wounds he had received in the service of his country and broken in health from overwork,” biographer Samuel Armor writes, “Dr. Freeman left the Middle west in 1894 and sought relief in less frigid California.”

After two years of rest and restoration in San Diego, he moved to Fullerton, California, where he served as a doctor for eighteen years. He was one of the early promoters of the Fullerton Hospital, which also became a training school for nurses.

The first hospital in Fullerton was built in 1903 on the corner of Pomona and Amerige Avenues. It contained twenty-two rooms, containing “modern appliances and furnishings throughout.” The first Board of Directors included: Charles C. Chapman, Dr. C.L. Rich, B.C. Balcom, William Starbuck, Dr. D.W. Hasson, Dr. George C. Clark, and Dr. William Freeman.

The second Fullerton hospital was built in 1915 on the same site as the first, and it still remains today.

Dr. Freeman purchased twenty-seven acres on Orangethorpe Avenue, where he built a house and planted a small orange ranch.

He served as city health officer, and was one of the founders of the local Chamber of Commerce.

By his first marriage, he had four children. His second wife was Belle McFadden.

Source: History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present by Samuel Armor. Los Angeles Historic Record Co, 1921.