Memories from the Homestead: Remembering the Freeland family - Taney County publishers

     In 1895, Taney County would see its first successful weekly newspaper, the Taney County Republican. Published in Forsyth each Thursday, the paper was founded by County Prosecuting Attorney B.B. Price and S.J. Williams.  The subscription rate was a $1 per year and their first editor was Lawrence Carroll.

 In 1917 the Republican was purchased by W.E. Freeland, a native of Kansas. He came to Taney County in 1908.

Mr. Freeland was born in Kansas on January 5, 1879, and moved with his family to northeast Missouri where he became a high school teacher.  He married his wife Minnie in August 1902. They would have two daughters.

LEFT: W.E. Freeland, owner of the Taney County Republican and later the White River Leader newspapers. RIGHT: W.E. Freeland with his wife Minnie, daughters Maude and Frieda, and grandson William (Photos courtesy of the White River Valley Historical Society)  

William taught for several years at Indian schools in Arizona, New Mexico and South Dakota. Purchasing the Taney County Republican newspaper at Forsyth in 1917, Minnie and their girls Frieda and Maude ran the paper for two years because of William's teaching contract with the U.S. Government. 

William was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1923 and went on to serve as Majority Leader in 1927.  He was elected to the State Senate in 1936 serving through 1940.

In 1945 the Freelands purchased the Branson newspaper, The White River Leader, which had been in print since 1913. In 1945 William received an Honor Medal for Distinguished Service to Journalism, recognized for his devotion and success of publishing a weekly paper.

Freeland felt the newspaper should be viewed as a record of the people it served, as well as a chronicle, a history book; it also should entertain and inform. The Freelands certainly were a benefit to our county.  In the 25 years I've spent digging through so many wonderful gems of our past, I've always received great enjoyment going through the weekly papers, especially the editorials Freeland wrote in his later years.

The Freelands were blessed with long lives and careers in the press. William passed away at age 91 on January 14, 1970, and Minnie passed at the age of 101 on December 29, 1979.  Both were laid to rest at the Ozarks Memorial Park Cemetery. Their daughters continued in the business too.  Maude was long remembered as a Journalism Professor at Missouri University in Columbia. She passed in February 1985. Her sister Frieda died in 1993.

Much of the archive of newspapers owned by the Freelands can be found at the White River Valley Historical Society in Forsyth, and they can also assist with a number of websites where the papers are easily found. It makes for great reading looking back at our area's past.

Happy trails, everyone!