The Freeman Farm, Gates County

The Freeman Farm, Gates County

Edmund James “Ned” and Edith Virginia Langston Freeman (1853-1934) purchased this 350 acre farm which was divided by the state line soon after they married in 1876. They purchased it from George Bishop, a New York Yankee who had passed by it during the Civil War. Wheat was growing head high. After the war he returned to purchase the farm and tried unsuccessfully to grow wheat. After his unsuccessful farming adventure he discovered that what he had seen on his way south was not wheat but broomstraw. He was glad to divest himself of his farming interest and return north.

The Freemans had eight children: five of them lived to adulthood. The youngest, Joseph Ray Freeman (1892-1942), was the only child to marry. Two of the children, Hewett and Edith, lived in the homeplace their entire life. The other two, Lloyd and John, left home to work but returned home in their old age. All the family but Ray are buried in the family cemetery on the farm.

Edith Freeman, the last child to survive, died in 1964. The property descended to the children of Joseph Ray Freeman, namely Edith Freeman Seiling, Joseph Ray Freeman Jr., Julian Freeman and Anita Godwin. Julian Freeman died in 1985 and his share is now owned by his heirs.

In 1975 Peggy Seiling, daughter of Edith Freeman Seiling and her husband Mike Lefler, purchased the house from the Freeman heirs.

The house is a unique landmark named the Freeman/State Line House because it straddles the North Carolina-Virginia line. The oldest part of the house dates from the eighteenth century and was a one-room house. The last addition (North Carolina side) was made about 1830….

The unique location of the house has added colorful elements to its history. Edmund J. Freeman, who lived in the house for 40 years, was a justice of the peace in both states simultaneously. Young lovers eloping from each state would come to the house to be married in the adjoining state by the same magistrate. In the old days, the property was favored for fighting duels. Duelists would pair off, one standing in North Carolina, the other in Virginia. When the opponent fell, the victor merely stepped across the state line and gained freedom from arrest. An unusual joint birthday party celebrated by North Carolina and Virginia youths born on the same day, tugs of war across the state line, and the splitting of state loyalties among brothers and sisters have become part of the house’s lore.

The State Line House was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and is now occupied by Michael and Peggy Lefler, the great-granddaughter of Edmund J. Freeman.

One can reserve bed and breakfast accommodations at the State Line House by contacting B&B in Albemarle.

--Submitted by Edith Freeman Seiling.

In 1988, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture published a commemorative book, North Carolina Century Farms: 100 Years of Continuous Agricultural Heritage. This book provided a history of century farms in North Carolina. It contains information about a second Freeman Farm in Gates County.

Stories about other Gates County century farms in the book include:

The Barnes Farm, submitted by Mrs. Frank Barnes

The E.A. Blanchard Heirs Farm, submitted by William N. Blanchard

The Cypress Glade Farm, submitted by Samuel Lee Morgan and Doris Perry Morgan

The Eure Farm, submitted by Carolyn R. Eaton

The Riddick Gatling Jr. Farm, submitted by Nina Gatling Parker

The Old Rountree Farm, submitted by Elizabeth Rountree

The Stallings Farm, submitted by Maxine S. Wiggins http://www.ncgenweb.us/gates/news/stallingsfarm.htm

The Story Farm, submitted by Edward P. Story