Benjamin Richardson Freeland. Born on April 1, 1832 in Spencer, Owen Co., IN. Benjamin Richardson died in Ashland, Jackson Co., OR, on January 26, 1907; he was 74. Buried in Ashland, Jackson Co., OR. Occupation: dentist in 1870, 1880, 1900. He claimed land two miles away from his father’s. He is not in 1860 with his parents in Albany and does not appear in Oregon. No record of Benjamin R. Freeland appears in 1860 for Oregon, Washington, or California. In 1870, no records in WA or OR, however, a matching Benjamin Freeland, age 38, born in Indiana appears in Ward 10 in San Francisco (Census 1870:1). He was a dentist. Living a few doors away in Household 9 was his wife and their two small children. She had no occupation (Census 1870:2). Either the couple were separated and later reconciled, or he was captured in the census at his place of business. The series of entries above and below his were all one person households. Two doors away from his wife in Household 11 lived Enoch Freeland, his brother. Between 1870 and 1874 they moved to Washington Territory, where son Walter was born. Between 1874 and 1877, they moved back to Albany, Oregon, where they lived in Household 24 (Census 1880:14). In 1900, the family was living in Ashland, District 93, Jackson Co., Oregon. He had remarried. His new wife Isobel had given birth to four children, one still living in 1900.

On July 12, 1866 when Benjamin Richardson was 34, he first married Sarah Belle Kuykendall, in Wilber, Douglas Co., OR. Born circa 1847 in Wisconsin or Michigan. Sarah Belle died on March 24, 1887; she was 40. The 1880 census states her father born in Ohio and her mother in Indiana.

They had the following children:
Frank Melvin (1868-1889)
Nellie Alice (1871-1958)
Walter Benjamin (1874-1959)
Ethel Belle (1877-1954)
Roy Edward (1879-)
Elva (1883-1980)
Mabel Eudora “Belle” (1887-)