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From the May 31, 1906 Freeman Courier: 

Tuesday evening, the committee named in our last issue to arrange for the Fourth of July met, and once again proceeded to work out the program.

Amongst the many excellent features we are to have follows: 

• One of the best bands in the state 

• Two renowned speakers, one German and one English 

• A grand parade 

• Two ball games 

• Live pigeon shooting 

• A two-block run for a purse between the two hose carts, number one and number two of the Freeman • volunteer fire company. 

• Merry-go-round 

• And too many other others to enumerate them all in this issue 

The committee has also secured a tent, big enough to hold all the visitors, so everyone (should) arrange (to) come to Freeman and celebrate with us, for we candidly believe this will be the greatest celebration ever had in this part of the state.

On July 5, the Courier reported on the event.

“The day was a delightful one. Quite a number came from neighboring towns  … and people from the surrounding country came in large numbers. The town was filled with a large crowd all day and evening. All spent a very pleasant day as it was a very orderly crowd.

“The first thing in the morning was the parade, which was the finest procession ever seen in Freeman. At 10:30 a.m., the band, after playing a few selections on the street, marched to the tent and people listened to the speakers … Professor Thierstein in German and Major Dollard of Scotland in English. They showed themselves (to be) fluent and eloquent speakers and delivered splendid addresses. Professor Lamb read the Declaration of Independence. 

“The advertised attractions for the afternoon were all pulled off in such a manner that the committees deserve great credit for their successful management of the entertainment.”

 Excerpts from the May 26, 1999 Freeman Courier: 

A portion of Freeman’s busiest street will be closed off … next week as Freeman dedicates the new structure honoring its veterans. 

The Freeman Area Veterans Memorial will be dedicated Monday, May 30, as part of the city’s annual Memorial Day Service (with) Gov Bill Janlow as speaker. 

The dedication comes nearly two years after the first steps were taken to construct a memorial honoring those who served their country. 

In the summer of 1997, the Freeman Area Veterans Memorial was formed with Maurice Kaufman, chair; Cal Kleinsasser, treasurer; Duke Kleinsasser, secretary.

As an act of faith in the project, Coppy Heckenlaible donated $500 … promptly matched by Kaufman. By the fall of 1997, $15,000 had been donated. 

The committee decided the abandoned cemetery on the corner of Sixth and Wipf Street would be the ideal spot for the memorial. Approval was granted by the Freeman Cemetery Association and the City of Freeman and construction began in April 1998. 

(Following a) September 1998 a groundbreaking ceremony, work progressed quickly. By the end of the year, more than $30,000 had been raised. 

The memorial is built on a mint green-tinted semicircle cement pad measuring 42 feet in diameter. Six named tablets made of granite list the 841 names of veterans. There is additional space for additional names to be added. 

Six, 20-foot flag poles, which honor each branch of the military, and a 30-foot flag pole honoring the American flag encompass the memorial. 

In the center of the memorial are two brick pedestals … one pays tribute to the pioneers of Freeman, who are still buried in the old cemetery. The other pedestal honors the Freeman Veterans of Foreign Wars Wilde Post #3728 and Auxiliary, and the Freeman American Legion Weber Post #284. 

While construction of the memorial went relatively smoothly, the project has seen tragedy…Maurice Kaufman, who played an instrumental part in getting the project off the ground, died following a severe heart attack in August. The committee also mourns the loss of Harold Knittle, Cal Kleinsasser and Merlin Huber, all of whom played an active part in the memorial project.

Excerpts from the May 24, 1973 Freeman Courier.

On May 22, 1973, voters in the Freeman Public School District approved issuing $600,000 in bonds to build a new jr.-sr. high school on a new campus on the southern side of Freeman.

The Freeman Courier reported the results: 808 for, 308 against, a 72.4% margin. Bond issues require a 60% majority.

But what’s remarkable about the vote is that it came after nearly four years and six failed elections.

With overcrowding and increased enrollment at the 1925 school building at Third and Wipf, the Freeman School Board started pushing for a new building in mid-60s. That led to a proposal for a new jr.-sr. high school on 43 acres purchased in 1969. The results of a $1.4 million bond election on Oct. 21, 1969, was an overwhelming defeat – only 23% voted yes; 297 for and 1,003 against. 

The next five bond elections in the next three years all failed to gain public support, although the rejections were not as dramatic as the first. While some gained a majority vote, none reached the required 60%.

In the May 3, 1973, Courier, the board again made the case for a new school building.

“Construction of a new school would eliminate the need for renting seven classrooms from Bethany Mennonite Church, Darald Walter, Dr. Jose Villa and Pine Hill Printery (and) the mobile classroom units and the frame schoolhouse.”

The proposed floor plan for “adequate classroom and lunchroom facilities for a junior senior high school” was 38,725 square feet; approximately $21 per square foot. 

The board noted the preliminary budget for 1974 would not increase taxes for next year because “approximately three mills is being collected this year for future building purposes; it will take 2.5 mills per year for 20 years to pay for the $600,000 bond issue; the amount now being set aside for future building can be used instead to pay for the bond issue.

The new jr.-sr. high school opened for the 1976-77 school year; it remains in use today. It did not, however, include a gym, which had been included in the original 1969 plan. A $495,000 bond election for a new gym in 1976 was voted down 551-452. It wouldn’t be until 1992 that a new gym was built. It cost $1.3 million.

Excerpts from May 12, 1993 Freeman Courier:

Shortly after Dennis Ries arrived to begin his practice at Rural Medical Clinics nine years ago, he thought to himself, “It sure would be nice to have a covered walkway between the clinic and the hospital.”

The two healthcare facilities are located across the street from each other. That means staff – and occasionally patients – going from one building to the other have to endure the wind, rain and snow.

Ries reflected on that Monday morning at a ceremony that commenced the start of a project that will, incidentally, provide the protection from the elements he wished for. 

On May 10, ground was broken for the Freeman Community Hospital and Nursing Home Connection Project, which will physically link the clinic and the hospital in a major expansion of the medical facility. 

“We will have some walkway,” Ries said with a smile. “I can hardly wait.”

“It is the final step in a three-phase of a $2.4 million expansion project that will dramatically change the design and appearance of the hospital complex. This is the third and major phase of. Other elements include the expansion of the clinic building.

Dennis Wollman, board president said, “This is a time of renewed commitment.” 

Wollman told the group the board felt it it had to choose between two policies… One to continually upgrade the service offered. The other is to hang on as long as you can. 

“This is your investment in the health care of the future,” he said.

Addendum: In addition to physically linking the clinic and hospital on space that had been the west end of Eighth Street. It included a new hospital nurse’s station, new lab and X-Ray areas, two birthing suites, ICU, surgical suites, a three-bay emergency room and entrance on Eight Street, a prayer room and a new main entrance facing east with parking extending east to Wipf Street.

The Connection Project was completed in summer of 1994. The Sept. 28, 1994 Courier reported an estimated 2,500 people attended the open house at the new expanded facility on Sept. 25. The name, Freeman Community Hospital and Nursing Home, was changed to Freeman Regional Health Services in 2004.

Excerpts from the May 7, 1953 Courier.

Freeman will have an election on May 19 to decide the street question. The plan is to pave from the Freeman Co-op gas corner (Fifth and Main) to the alley north of Freeman Lumber. The estimate is that it will cost $58,000. The city will pay for the intersections and one-fourth of the cost of the street. This the engineer estimates, will come to around $28,000. The rest of the cost will be carried by the property owners along Main Street. The city council (will) use $10,000 from profits of the municipal liquor store to pay for part its share. The election will call for a (bond) issue of $18,000. It seems to use this is a wise move on the part of the city council.

The following week, the Freeman Commercial Club wrote in support of the project.

“The Main Street of Freeman never was in worse shape than it is today. We have received so much bad publicity because of our bad street it is time we do something about it … How much will it cost you Mr. Voter? Basing the estimate on the total assessed valuation for 1953 at about $1 million … $2.10 per year or 17 and one half cent per month.”

The May 21 Courier reported “On Tuesday’s election, 441 votes were cast – 396 for street improvement and 45 opposed.”

The Sept. 17 issue reported “We have about four blocks of pavement completed. People of Freeman have reason to be proud of our town. Our population is less than 1,000 and strangers looking down Main Street so often estimate a 1,500 population.”

A display ad in the Sept. 24 Courier announced the Freeman Pavement Celebration on Sept. 30 at 6:30 p.m. The ad noted the event was “Free to all (with)  feed for all. A mammoth full evening of fine entertainment (with) bands, music, games, races, speeches, contests, free candy, pop, ice cream, coffee and hot dogs. Special added attraction – Elk’s Club of Sioux Falls Motorcycle Daredevils.” 

It was promoted as “Freeman’s biggest celebration in 73 years.”

Addendum: In the following years, nearly all of Freeman’s streets were paved. In 2022, the city rebuilt Main Street from Fifth Street to North County Road and several adjoining streets; it cost more than $5 million.

 On April 6, 1917, the United States entered “the Great War” (later known as World War I). In the following weeks and months, publisher J.J. Mendel offered both news and his own insights in the Freeman Courier.  Excerpts from the April 26 issue:

Government officials have voiced a strong plea to the farmers of the country to cultivate to the limit (so) we may not be hampered by a shortage of food supplies … We may not all serve in the ranks, but we can demonstrate our loyalty in our devotion to our country by heeding the plea of the president (for) an increase in the production of food supplies. Let us not have an acre that is not under cultivation or in pasturage. Let us not have even a backyard or vacant lot that is not producing something. Patriotism lies here just as strongly as it does in the battle line. 

In the May 3 issue, he wrote, “Men of military age who have been married since the start of war against Germany was declared will not escape their obligation of military justice under the ward department policy just announced.”

The next week, he reported “South Dakota’s apportionment will be 3,450 … in the ratio of one in 14 … of men between 21 and 27 years of age. Chance will be the deciding factor in their choice for service. All men between the age specified shall be registered (with) their township boards. In the same fashion as juries are drawn, the individual names will be carried out.

“Exemption boards in each congressional district will be put into operation to pass exemptions … including dependent families, continuance of unemployment and industries vital to government and to the country, etc.”

In the May 31 issue, he wrote, “Remember the man between the ages of 21 and 30 inclusive who failed to register is liable to a penitentiary sentence of one year.”

Aug. 16, he reported that “in Hutchinson County, out of 232 young men examined for the selective draft, 174 passed the physical examination.”

From the Sept. 27 issue: “Saturday was a day of solemnity in Freeman … the occasion that six young men from this town (and) three from the immediate neighborhood, bade us goodbye and left for the uncertainties of a soldier’s life.”