Harry M. Freeman Page 601-602 - Harry M. Freeman, local manager of he Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, is a very experienced and successful distributor of the commodities manufactured by his company, the largest of its kind in the world. He was born in Washington, D. C., on August 29, 1870, when his father, John Henry Freeman was in government service there. In 1873 John Henry Freeman went to New York city where he engaged in the insurance business. He died in 1922 at the age of eighty-four years. His wife, Alice A. (Jones) Freeman, a native of Albany, New York, died in New York city at the age of seventy-nine, in 1919. Harry M. Freeman received his education in the schools of New York city and was graduated from the high school there. In 1884 he took employment with the T. K. Horton Company, remaining with them for about six months and then went to Evans Ball & Company of New York city, who were engaged in shipping and commission business and in the operation of several lines of sailing vessels in the coasting trade. In 1888 Mr. Freeman took cognizance of the fact that steam transportation was replacing sailing vessels and decided to change his vocation which choice fell upon the glass business and he then began his successful business career in that line with the London and Manchester Plate Glass Company. But in 1890 this company retired from business, not being able to compete with American competition. He then became connected with Heroy & Marrenner, glass jobbers of New York city. In 1892 they consolidated their plate glass department with the similar department of Semon Blache & Company and Holbrook Brothers, out of which consolidation was formed a new company know as the Manhattan Plate Glass Company of New York city. After about a three-year career, this enterprise was purchased by the present Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, who after thus taking over the stock and good will of the Manhattan Plate Glass Company, embarked in the jobbing business, this being their initial venture in the jobbing of glass. Mr. Freeman has remained continuously with this company, in New York city and then at Detroit, where he came in 1897. In 1905 he was sent to Grand Rapids as manager for the company to establish its jobbing enterprise in western Michigan. This position he has since then held with credit to himself and the company. Mr. Freeman is a member of the Grand Rapids Association of Commerce, the Builders and Traders Exchange, director and secretary of the Highlands Country Club, a member of the National Safety Council, the Grand Rapids Motor Club, and Izaak Walton League of America of which he was a member of the first directorate of the local chapter. He was united in marriage in 1894 to Miss Ida Louise Boden, of Brooklyn, New York. They have one daughter and one son: Helen Gertrude (now Mrs. Howard C. Brink) born in 1896 and educated in Detroit public, private and high schools, graduating from the high school; and a son, Harold born in 1902, who received his education the public and high schools of Grand Rapids. Mr. Freeman and his family attend the Fountain Street Baptist Church.

Transcriber: Nancy Myers
Created: 13 December 2002