George, Louisa & Ada Freeman, Champaign County
George, Louisa (1872 - 1942) and Ada (1876) were all placed in the home of John H. Omey in Dewey in 1888. They were the children of Henry Freeman and Hester Cooper, a fact that can be confirmed not only through the 1880 census in New York, but through the 1925 state census in Iowa, where Louisa and Ada both lived after marrying. Henry Freeman was a truckman in New York City.
George and Louisa each married in Champaign County to one of the Newcombe siblings. George married Bessie Newcombe in 1896 and there after disappeared from the census records completely. Louisa (Wilhelmina) married John J. Newcombe in 1892. Louisa and John moved to Iowa, where they lived in Burlington and then Keokuk. They had seven children who can be positively confirmed through the Iowa 1925 census, but the record is confused by the fact that Louisa, who was born Wilhelmina Louisa, began using the name Catherine in 1925. The list of children associated with Louisa in 1910 and the list of children associated with Catherine in 1925 do not completely align. (But the children in the 1925 census are definitely associated with the orphan train rider). Those children are: Magdalen, George, Mary, Margaret, Paul, Ruth and John. Other children, whose names appeared to change in the 1925 census: Ella J. (Magdalen), Della G. (Mary) other daughters may have left the family for marriages by 1925: Louisa W., Mary C. and Alice M. Especially confusing is the fact that Louisa had a son when she was fifty years old.
Ada Freeman married in 1893 to William Rauch. They moved to Pekin, where William was a fireman with the gas company in 1900, and then to Davenport, Iowa where they appeared in the 1920 census. William died at the age of 50 in Davenport, leaving Ada with six children to care for. A public notice informed the citizens of the city that a support payment would be made to Mrs. Rauch, $8 per each dependent child. Such payments were meant to make it possible for mothers to support their children and were commonly called "mother's pensions." In 1925 two of Ada's adult children were living with her and may have contributed to the income of the family as well. Ada died in 1965 in Tucson, Arizona.
One family tree suggested that Henry Freeman had died in 1884, leaving his family unsupported. At that time, the only support provided for children after the death of a parent was the juvenile asylum or orphanage, where these three children were sent sometime before 1888.
