Vernon Freeman family papers and photographs

The Freeman family settled in Delaware County, Indiana in 1835, when Isaac and Jemima Moore Freeman moved their family from Ohio to a quarter section of land in Hamilton Township. The farm remained in the family for the next four generations.

Vernon Oran Freeman was born in 1919 and married Betty Russell Freeman, also of Delaware County, in 1940. The Freeman family continued farming in Hamilton Township through the 1990s. In 1969 Vernon and Betty Freeman began the development of the first planned communities in Delaware County, Indiana: Farmington subdivision, Farmington Meadows, and Farmington Country Estates. They continued to be actively involved in the development of those communities and the governance of the home owners association in Farming Meadows.

In addition to their contributions in agriculture and housing development, Vernon and Betty Freeman were actively involved in local government and civic organizations. Vernon Freeman served on the Delaware County Board of Zoning Appeals during the 1970s and early 1980s. He was also an aviator who served as president of the Delaware County Board of Aviation Commissioners in the late 1980s. Betty Freeman was appointed to the Muncie Growth Commission in 1994. Vernon Freeman was a fifty-year member of Delaware Lodge No. 46, Free and Accepted Masons, and Betty Freeman was a longtime member of the Philomathean Club. Vernon Freeman died in 1995.