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Arvy Glenn Freed
1863-1931

Biographical Sketch
Of The Life Of A.G. Freed
On August 3, 1863, in Indiana, Arvy Glenn Freed was born. His
parents were Joseph and Elisa Hayes Freed. At the time of Brother Freed's
birth Joseph Freed lived in Saltillo, Indiana. His mother was a Hayes, a
relative of President Rutherford B. Hayes. Brother Freed had some
distinguished ancestors. He was educated in the common schools of Indiana
until he was ready to go to college. He entered Valparaiso University and
was graduated with distinction from that famous educational institution.
Brother Freed had strong intellectual powers, together with a keen
intellect. He easily mastered any subject which he set his heart to study.
He became a Christian early in life. Soon after
becoming a Christian he began to preach the gospel. He combined teaching
and preaching. After graduating from the university he came to Tennessee
and dedicated his life to the cause of Christian education and the
preaching of the gospel. He had laid well the foundation for a thorough
education and had mastered every branch that belonged to the curriculum
for his day. He established a school at Essary Springs, Tenn., and there
enjoyed the first success of his successful career as an educator. After
teaching a number of years at Essary Springs, he went to Henderson, Tenn.,
and there began work in a larger field. He gathered around him a very
efficient faculty of teachers, and his college soon became famous
throughout West Tennessee and North Mississippi. The institution at
Henderson grew, and its courses were modified to keep apace with the
onward March of the cause of education. Brother Freed went to Texas and
taught a few years, but returned to his old field of labor at Henderson
and established what is now known as Freed-Hardeman College. He remained
with this institution of learning until 1923. At that time he came to
Nashville and accepted the position of vice president of David Lipscomb
College. He remained with this college until he passed away. Brother Freed
may be classed among the famous educators of the South.
In
the pulpit, as a preacher of the gospel, he achieved great success. He
understood the Bible and loved the word of God. He delighted in studying
its sacred truths. His sermons were logical and Scriptural. He presented
his lessons with kindness and persuasiveness. He could present the truth
in such a way as to convince the disbeliever and persuade and encourage
all to accept the word of God. He was very successful as an evangelist and
baptized hundreds of people. He established many congregations and
strengthened many others. He traveled and preached in nearly all of the
Southern States and many of the Northern States. His services were always
in demand, and he never found time to rest. Thousands of people living
today can rejoice in the fact that Brother Freed helped them to see the
truth and then to accept it.
In
the field of polemics Brother Freed bad but few equals and possibly no
superiors. Brother Freed was not militant in nature, neither was he
inclined to disputing. He debated because he saw the need of discussion,
and was not afraid to defend the church or the truth of God as revealed in
the Bible against any opposition. No man bad greater courage when armed
with the truth than did A. G. Freed, and no man wrought greater victories
for the truth in discussion than did Brother Freed. He was kind, but
emphatic, in his discussion. His great love for the truth of God led him
to have no mercy on error. The church of our Lord in many places has
rejoiced through the victories won in discussion by Brother Freed.
A.
G. Freed was a great man. He served his fellow man as a teacher and as a
preacher of the gospel. Many young men and young women owe their success,
in a large measure, to the help and encouragement which Brother Freed gave
them. Brother Freed's greatness is not to be measured by the ordinary
standards of man; his greatness is to be measured by the good that he did.
No man can be truly good without being great, and no man can be truly
great without being good. Brother Freed was a good man, and, therefore, a
great man. If we should measure his greatness by the number of people that
he has helped, it would be difficult to find a greater man than A. G.
Freed. He encouraged and inspired thousands of young men and young women
to aspire to a nobler life in the service of man and of God. He started
hundreds of gospel preachers to work in the vineyard of the Lord and
trained them for the greatest usefulness as preachers of the gospel. The
cause of Christ and Christian education in the South have made greater
progress because of the consecration and labors of Brother Freed.
Brother
Freed was an educated, Christian gentleman. He was gentle in nature; he
had a poetic nature; he loved poetry and music. He was humble and kind;
few could excel him in gentleness and kindness. It seems that he was a
very Chesterfield in courtesy. He had the polish that graces one in
society and makes one a charming companion and friend. He was loyal to the
right and to his friends. The writer has been blessed by the close
association of three great men: David
Lipscomb, E. A. Elam, and A. G. Freed. The writer has labored years
with each of these great men and has received rich blessings through close
association with them. From D. Lipscomb the writer learned the rugged
truths of the Bible
and received encouragement which strengthened his
faith in the word of God; through the association with E. A. Elam he
learned to appreciate more the value of loyalty to the word of God and
service in the name of Christ; and through the association with Brother
Freed he learned some of those finer graces of soul culture which adorn
the Christian life. He thanks God for the influence of these three great
men.
Brother Freed's last days were spent in suffering, but without
complaint. His
conflict with death, as it respected bodily affliction, was truly hard;
but his soul appeared to be happy in the conflict. No one ever witnessed
such resignation and Christian fortitude as
was displayed by Brother Freed. He was reduced in flesh and
must have experienced great pain, but no murmur or complaint was ever
heard from his lips. On the contrary, when
asked how he was, be always replied that be was
doing well.
He never lost that gracious smile which had adorned his life. On November
11, 1931, his peaceful spirit left his emaciated body and went to Him who
gave it. He passed away as he had lived, hopeful and peaceful. Human
society is richer and better because Brother Freed has lived.
-From
Biographical Sketches Of Gospel Preachers, H.
Leo Boles, Gospel Advocate Co. 1932, pages 448-451

A. G.
FREED
Arvy Glenn Freed was born at Saltillo,
Indiana in August 3, 1863. He attended local public schools and then
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana, graduating there in 1889.
After graduation he came south and began a teaching, preaching, and
debating career at Essary Springs, Tennessee in the fall of 1889.
Essary Springs, where he started his
work in Christian Education in the South is on Big Hatchie River in the
southeast corner of Hardeman County. Southern Tennessee Normal College,
as the school there was named, began in 1889 with Freed as President and
continued until 1895. He built it to an enrollment of about 450
students.
While at Essary Springs, he met and
married Cora Belle Baynham of LaFayette, Kentucky. To this union two
children were born. One, a son, Arvy Baynham
died very young and the other, Martha Belle Freed Primme now resides in
New York City.
In 1895 the board of trustees of West
Tennessee Christian College, a school in Henderson, Tennessee that had
been in operation for some years, offered to unite the two schools and
Freed accepted. He did so under the provision that the trustees would
grant him a lease of ten years to run the school. Two years later, in
1897, a new brick administration building was erected and the name of
the school was changed to Georgie Robertson Christian College. A period
of great growth followed and Brother Freed asserted in 1901 that it was
"the largest and best equipped normal school south of the Ohio River."
Due to dissension in the faculty of
G.R.C. College, Brother Freed resigned and went to Denton, Texas at the
end of his lease in 1905. He became President of Southwestern Christian
College and remained there until 1908. He returned to Henderson on that
date to become co-founder with N. B. Hardeman of National Teachers
Normal and Business College. He was President and Hardeman
Vice-President most of the period from 1908 until 1923. In 1923 he sold
his interest in Freed-Hardeman College, (the name of the school having
been changed in 1919), and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to become
Vice-President of David Lipscomb College, where he remained until his
death in 1931.
During the many years of administrative
responsibility in these five colleges he had been most active as a
preacher, lecturer, and debater throughout the South. He was a Bible
scholar and natural teacher. He inspired young people wherever he went
to attend college and through his own magnetic personality, keen
thinking, and impressive demeanor, sent them from the college halls with
a store of knowledge and a purpose in life.
He met and defeated the giant leaders of
denominations in the area. Among these was Bogard, Baptist in Little
Rock, Arkansas, seven debates with Pigue, Methodist, in Tennessee and
Mississippi, two with J. N. Hall, Baptist, and one with Taylor, Baptist,
in Jackson, Tennessee in 1927.
In a volume, "Sermons, Chapel Talks, and
Debates," published by I. A. Douthitt in 1930, there is the following
tribute; "Brother A. G. Freed has been one of the leading educators of
the South for more than a third of a century, and the greater portion of
his labors, both as President of colleges and preacher of the gospel,
has been done in West Tennessee. This fact alone tells more eloquently
than I am able to do the character of man he is. During all this time he
has been and is now one of the greatest preachers and debaters in the
church of Christ."
In a memorial service in the chapel of
Freed-Hardeman College on November 17, 1931, L.
L. Brigance said; "Industry was Brother Freed's outstanding
characteristic, his other attributes however, optimism, courtesy,
dignity, cleanliness, and love of home being of such strength in the
man's make-up as to stand on a par with the first mentioned."
A. B. Lipscomb of Valdosta, Georgia
said; "At one place and another wherever I go, I meet young men who have
sat at Brother Freed's feet and into whose lives something of his noble
character has been woven. When they lead in prayer I catch the teacher's
phrase, `just over there' and now let us rejoice in the fact that
Brother Freed knows what it means to be `just over there'."
-C. P. Roland,
Freed-Hardeman College, Henderson, Tennessee.
-The Minister's Monthly - Volume XI, No.
5, January, 1966


A.G. Freed, President

Mrs. A.G. Freed, 1901



Directions: Woodlawn Cemetery,
Nashville, Tennessee, is
located behind the 100 Oaks Shopping Center that faces I-65 just south of the
I-440 Interchange. From 100 Oaks travel east on Thompson Lane and turn right at
the first entrance to Woodlawn's South Side Park (across from main part of
cemetery). Take the first left and road will bear around to the right. Stop the
car around the trashcan and look to your left. Grave is located a few rows in.
GPS: N 36º 06' 39.1"
x WO 86º 45' 36.0"
Accuracy To Within 15ft.
Grave Faces West

To see map
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A.S.
Freed, Child Buried At Henderson, Tennessee
Gospel Advocate
Issue In 1931 Dedicated To A.G. Freed

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