John Gosse Freeze

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

John Gosse Freeze (November 4, 1825 – July 8, 1913) was an American lawyer and writer from Pennsylvania. He was born in Montoursville, the eldest of eight children, to Frances Gosse Freeze and James Freeze, a miller. He attended common and private schools, including Milton Academy and Danville Academy, and briefly worked as a teacher before choosing a legal career in 1846.

Freeze studied law under Joshua W. Cromley in Danville and was admitted to the Columbia County bar on April 19, 1848. He practiced law for more than sixty years, specializing early in land-title cases tied to coal lands in southern Columbia County. He also took part in homicide trials, including the Molly Maguires case of 1877, where he defended Hester, Tully, and McHugh, though he believed only Hester was guilty. Freeze was known for skillful courtroom work and often appeared before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

He held several public and civic roles. He served as the register and recorder of Columbia County from 1863 to 1869 and was a lieutenant colonel on the staff of Governor William Bigler. He briefly joined the 1872 Constitutional Convention representing the Fifteenth District but resigned early.

As a writer and editor, Freeze published histories of Columbia County and a poetry collection. His major works include History of Columbia County (1876), A History of Columbia County, Pennsylvania: From the Earliest Times (1888), and A Royal Pastoral and other Poems (1883); he also served as editor of the Columbian newspaper.

Freeze helped build Bloomsburg’s cultural life. He helped organize the Bloomsburg Literary Institute in 1866 and served as a trustee for the Bloomsburg Normal School, the Bloomsburg Public Library (where he was vice-president), and led the Bloomsburg Bridge Company, the Rosemont Cemetery Company, and the Bloomsburg Banking Company. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, historian for the Bloomsburg Centennial in 1902, a chancellor of the diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and a vestryman at Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church. He was a Democrat.

In his personal life, Freeze married Margaret Walker in 1854. They had five children, but only Maude survived to adulthood; the others died young. Freeze died on July 8, 1913, at his home in Bloomsburg and was buried in Rosemont Cemetery.