| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
STUCCO AND 1/2 TIMBERING IN GABLES PARTIALLY SCREENED PORCH
This front-gabled, Craftsman-style house rises two stories from a concrete and coursed-stone foundation and is largely sheathed with narrow clapboard. Gabled wall dormers rise on both the north and south sides of the house; the peaks of which feature a stucco and half-timber finish, as does the front-facing peak. Wooden brackets accent the modest return eaves. A flat-roofed porch extends from the front of the house and includes brick piers that are further supplanted by a trio of short square wooden supports. Windows throughout the house are largely one-over-one-light, double-hung sash arranged singly and in pairs; however, peak windows feature multiple-light, wooden panes. An additional porch appears to extend off of the northeast corner of the house.
This house was built in 1912 for Roscius “Rosh” Wright and Ingebor “Belle” Freeman. Rosh was born on 18 November 1879, the son of Roscius Sawyer and Lydia (nee Wright) Freeman. The elder Freeman moved from his native New York to River Falls in 1867 and, five years later, he opened Freeman’s Drug Store. Rosh earned degrees from both the Minnesota School of Pharmacy and the Chicago College of Pharmacy. In circa 1900, father and son formed a partnership and the River Falls pharmacy operated as R.S. Freeman & Son. In 1908, the elder Freemans built their home at 220 N. 3rd Street (which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places); the 1910 census enumerates the three of them at the home. On 25 December 1912, Rosh wed Ingebor Bergum and they moved into their new home on S. 4th Street. Their time in the home was brief, for it was sold in January 1918 to farmer Jay Morgan and his wife Esther of Diamond Bluff. Shortly afterwards, Rosh was reported to leave River Falls to visit his wife in Monrovia, California. Belle died in California on 17 April 1918.
By no later than 1917, Rosh was involved with the Tubbs Medicine Company in addition to serving as the manager of the Freeman Drug Company. Started in the late 1870s by Thomas E. Tubbs and incorporated in 1902 by his son William Elmer Tubbs, the Tubbs manufacturing concern was known nationally for a variety of patent medicines, including “Tubbs Elixir of Life,” and Tubbs Bilious Man’s Friend.” Rosh purchased by no later than the mid-1920s a half-interest in the firm and, as of the 1930 census (by which time Rosh and his family were living with his widowed father in the family home on N. 3rd Street), his occupation is listed as a chemist in a medicine factory. He would ultimately buy all the stock and manufacture some under the Freeman company name. In 1924, Rosh married a second time, this time to Gertrude Gregerson; they had one son, Richard. Rosh died on 5 September 1969. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Historic name, date of construction: River Falls Journal, 7 November 1912
Designer: per Kirby Symes
Tax Rolls, 1912, owner Haven, no valuation, 1913, no available book, 1914, owner Freeman ($550/land + $4,000); U.S. Federal Census, Population, 1910, 1920, 1930; Newsbrief (re: R.W. Freeman is building a house), RFJ, 7 November 1912; Newsbrief (re: sold house to JE Morgan), RFJ, 31 January 1918, 5/3; “Roscius S. and Lydia R. Freeman House,” National Register nomination, Prepared by Marlys A. Svendsen of Svendsen-Tyler, Inc., August 2006, 8/4-5 (Note that the nomination incorrectly identifies the marriage date of R.W. and Ingebor as 1907), NR-listed May 2007; “Mrs. R.W. Freeman,” Obituary, RFJ, 25 April 1918, 5/4; “Dies at 89, Rosh Freeman was Active on Main Street for 68 Years,” RFJ, 11 September 1969, 3/full page with photos. Esther Morgan died at some point prior to 1930, for Jay was enumerated in the census as a widow and the Morgans were again living in Diamond Bluff. |
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