COLUMBUS REED FREEMAN, a MORMON SHOOTER AND CLUBBER,
a private in the Iron County Militia; born on June 7, 1838 , in Breathitt County,
Kentucky. Died April 25,1907, in Los Angeles, California.
By 1857, Freeman was living in southern Utah. He is listed in June 1857
muster list but for unknown reasons, not in October 1857 list. He was
among the young men ordered to muster to Mountain Meadows. He would
have been no more than eighteen or nineteen at the time. According to
John D. Lee , Freeman attended the fateful military council at Mountain
Meadows on the evening of Thursday, September 10, just before the final massacre the following day. However, the youthful private could not have played a significant role in the deliberations of the council. His exact role at the time of the final massacre is not unknown althought he could have been among the contingent of Cedar City militiamen who accompanied the emigrant men on their northbound march.
Freeman and his family later moved north from Cedar City to Corn Creek. The 1880 census for Kanosh in Millard County lists Freeman was born in Missouri, 41 years old and employed as a laborer, with a wife, Lydia, born in Kentucky, 39 years old, keeping house, with four sons and three daughters, ages two to sixteen. http://www.1857ironcountymilitia.com/print.php?plugin:content.56