History of Cortland Cty>>> FREETOWN: .... John Aker and Henry Gardner, the former from Albany county and the latter from Plainfield, N.Y., came to the town in 1809; they both settled on lot No. 32, where Mr. Gardner bought one hundred acres. He died in Illinois in 1858 at the age of eighty years. He was the father of seven children. About this time or a little later the settlers in the town received accessions in the persons of Charles and Curtiss Richardson, Wm. Tuthill, Jacob Hicks, Isaac Doty, John Backus and Aruna Eaton. Such were the hardy men who made the first impressions of civilization in the wilderness of Freetown. Gradually they cleared away the forest, opened and improved roads and prepared the region for the better enjoyment of those who were to come after them.
At the opening of the War of 1812 the town had become sufficiently settled so that neighbors could reach each other without a pilgrimage of half a day or more through the woods.
?? Backus (d. date unknown)
Notes for ?? Backus: