William Freeborn was a pioneer in Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, and California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Freeborn County, Minnesota

Freeborn County, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 32,584 people, 13,356 households, and 9,015 families residing in the county. The population density was 46 people per square mile . There were 13,996 housing units at an average density of 20 per square mile...

 is named in his honor. ,

Pioneer

Born in Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 in 1816, Freeborn moved to St Paul, Minnesota in 1848. By 1853 Freeborn had removed to Red Wing, Minnesota

Red Wing, Minnesota

Red Wing is a city in Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States, on the Mississippi River. The population was 16,459 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Goodhue County....

. According to Upham

Warren Upham

Warren Upham was a geologist, archaeologist, and librarian who is best known for his studies of glacial Lake Agassiz. Upham worked as a geologist in New Hampshire before moving in 1879 to Minnesota to study the resources and glacial geology of that state...

 Freeborn "had large interests, as also at Cannon Falls

Cannon Falls, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,795 people, 1,550 households, and 996 families residing in the city. The population density was 946.4 people per square mile . There were 1,611 housing units at an average density of 401.8 per square mile...

." , From Red Wing, Freeborn moved to Montana, where he spent a season as a gold miner in the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

. In 1868 Freeborn arrived in Santa Margarita, California

Santa Margarita, California

Santa Margarita is a census-designated place located in San Luis Obispo County, California. It was founded in 1897 near Cuesta Peak and San Luis Obispo along State Route 58. The town's name comes from the Mexican Alta California land grant. It is home to the Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia...

, where he settled on a ranch. Back in Minnesota, Thomas Newson wrote of Freeborn, "He was a man of progressive and speculative ideas, energetic, always scheming, and had a happy faculty of getting other parties interested in his enterprises. He was a quietly spoken man, of rugged appearance; self-possessed, and never was afraid to venture."

Politician

Freeborn served as a member of the council in the Minnesota territorial legislature from 1854 to 1857, and was mayor of Red Wing, Minnesota in 1858, resigning after less than a year.