Rev. Thomas Frean Annals of Newberry, by John A. Chapman, page 599-602 The following sketch of the life of Rev. Thomas Frean was written by Judge O'Neall near the close of his own usefull life. Mr. Frean was for many years a citizen of Newbeny and in public life, married here, and certainly deserves a place in the Annals of Newberry. I copy from tbe original manuscript: "The request of a dying friend is now about to be performed. A friendship of near fifty years pointed to the writer as one better fitted to discharge the duty than any otber. It had been, too, the sad privilege of him to write short sketches of the wife and daughters and son of the deceased. He had mourned with him under these sad dispensations. He had witnessed his days of adversity and prosperity, and finally saw the shades gathering over the evening of life. His request, therefore, to do something like justice to his memory in a short sketch of his life, was imperative. "He was a native of Grange, in the Parisb of Lorba, of the County of Tipperary, Ireland. His father was Patrick Frean, of Grange, Parish of Lorha, in the County of Tipperary, Ireland. Thomas Frean was born on the 15th of January, 1793. He received a good education at the home of his birth. He was, on the 7th of March, 1807, bound an apprentice for the term of six years to a mercbant, John Cantwell, of the town of Parsonstown, in Kings County, and served some time. Why he left the home of his birth I never certainly knew. "He was the only child of his parents. From dark hints in a conversation with bim, I presume it was from difficulties with a Catbolic priest who had the charge of his education. He visited Charleston, S. C., and his relatives, somewhere between 1809 and 1814. His purpose was only a temporary sojourn. The war of 1812, while he was there lingering, occurred, and closed the possibility of an early return. Under the act of Congress, he with an Englishman of the name of Thomas was sent into the interior, and opened a store on Bush River, Newberry District, at the place once known as O'Neall's, then the property of Levi Hilburn. "The writer has a vivid recollection of his person when he first saw him in the year 1813 -his fine Irish youthful complexion, surrounded with natural curled ringlets, has never been forgotten. He was thrown into the society of his wife, Hannah Elmore, the daughter of Mathias and Rebecca his wife. Both were young, he a little over twenty and she approaching eighteen. The grandmother of the latter was an Irish lady, and had a warm regard for all who were from the land of her birth. She used to call Frean her young countryman, and encouraged his addresses. In the year 1813 he returned to Charleston, but kept up the pursuit of his love until the spring of 1814, when he was married by the Rev. Giles Chapman, at the house of his father-in-law. The grandmother of his wife was present, and wished each of her granddaughters an equally good match. "Subsequent events led her to doubt the propriety of the wish. He returned to Charleston, and in a small way embarked in the mercantile business at the lower end of King street, near the South Bay, where I found him and his wife in May, 1814. He did not remain long there. He removed to Newberry District and kept a store at Spear's, now O'Neall's, Mills, Bush River. How long he remained there I cannot tell. Misfortunes and misunderstandings occurred. He abandoned his family, and returned to the lower country. He taught school for a short period in the neighborhood of tile Four Holes. "He was reconciled to his family; and settled on a small tract of land given to his wife near Mendenhall's Mills. Here, in poverty, distress, and the use of intoxicatmg drinks, he lived at life of suffering. School teaching was his employment. At the death of his wife's grandmother, by her will his wife was entitled to and received a negro girl. After 1820 he accom­ panied his wife's father and family in a removal to Spartanburg. There he lived a life of great poverty. School teaching was his employment. While he lived in Spartan burg his household property was seized and sold under execution and purchased by a friend. More than twenty years after, when the whole transactian was forgotten by his friend, he recalled it and repaid the money. He returned after several years to Newberry, reoccupied his old place, taught school, abandoned the use of strong drink, and was converted and became a local Methodist preacher. In, perhaps, 1834 he sold his, wife's interest in the small tract of land, and purchased the Hendrix tract of land, on which his daughter and son-in-law now reside. By the assistance of a friend who became his surety, he was enabled to pay for the land. This was the turning point of his life. Adversity ceased to haunt his footsteps. In sobriety he fought and found prosperity. In 1838 (the Church record says 1835) he became satisfied that he was wrong in his religions profession. He was baptized (October 24th, 1833, accordnog to the Minutes), by immersion at the fount near Newberry and united himself to the Baptist Church at Newberry. He was soon after licensed and subsequent!y ordained to preach the gospel. "He became pastor of the Newherry Baptist Church, of the Rocky Spring Baptist Church, and the upply of other churches in Newberry and Laurens. In I1841 he became a candidate for Surveyor General, and was elected. He entered on the duties of his office in February, 1812, and removed to Columbia. For four years he discharged with great exactness and fidelity the duties of his office; for he was an active and intelligent surveyor of many years practice. In the latter years of his term of office he was employed to prepare copies of the plats in the Surveyor General's office in Columbia and Charleston. This work he finished with great fidelity and exactness. His charge was supposed to be too high, and the Legislature laid upon his work an unsparing hand and cut down his charges to a most beggarly amount, while they allowed the Secretary of State, for a similar work, a much larger amount. In the beginning this produced unfriendly feelings to him on the part of many good men. It for a time alienated his friend Major Perry. But subsequent examination satisfied him that Mr. Frean had not had justice done him. After many years of trouble an approach to compensation for that and other work was allowed him. He never was satisfied with the justice attempted to be meted to him. It was a source of bitterness to him throughout life, and was not forgotten in his last will and testament. "For years he discharged the duties of Deputy Treasurer, and uniformly was praised for the exactness with which he did his duty. His work called "Ten Years in the Treasury" was invaluable to the country. "During his official terms he preached occasionally in Columbia and its vicinity. His leisure hours he devoted very much to poetry. He wrote many fugitive pieces which were worthy of 'Carolan,' which was the nom de plume under which he usually wrote. He sometimes wrote some pieces of humor under the signature of 'Peter Pheasant. "To his children he gave the means of a good education. His son, William Herman Frean, graduated at the South Carolina College, and subsequently attended the Course of lectures at the South Carolina Medical College which was to fit him to be a physician. But it so happened in the providence of God that he should be taken away in July, 1855, just as he passed his twenty-first year. "His danghter Hannah Belton, remarkable for her agreeable character, was next stricken down. She died the 15th of November, 1855. Next followed the wife and mother, Hannah Frean. She died 29th June, 1859. To this gloomy catalogue must be appended his daughter Abigail CaldweIl Southern, who died on the 12th day of November, 1859. "Thus he was smitten until his house was left desolate for his only surviving daughter, Bridget Honoria Waldrop, resided in Newberry District. In solitude and sadness he was left to muse on his condition and to prepare for the final end of life. H'e died at the house of his son-in-law, Wilson W. Waldrop, on Sunday, the 7th of Aptil, 1860. "He was a fervid, impassioned and impulsive speaker. He was a real Tipperary man. He resisted whatever he supposed to be oppression, and he might have on such occasions been excessive in his violence. Generally speaking, he fulfilled the poet's prayer: "That mercy which I to others show, That mercy show to me." "He was a perfectly honest man. He became a Temperance man about the year 1838, and scrupulously adhered to the doctrine of total abstinence."