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Douglas Southall FREEMAN:
RENOWNED MAN OF LETTERS
A Personal Review of the Life and Work of an Esteemed Native Son
BY JAMES A. HUSTON
A historical marker in downtown Lynchburg, near the Texas Inn, memorializes Douglas Southall Freeman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author noted above all for his massive biographical works on Robert E. Lee and his commanders, and on George Washington. He was born on May 16, 1886, at 416 Main Street, the son of Walker Burford Freeman and Bettie Allen Hamner. Douglas’s father, a veteran of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, was at that time serving as general agent of the New York Life Insurance Company.
Douglas’s older brother, Allen Weir Freeman, was
born at the Main Street house in 1881. A well-known physician, Allen graduated from The Johns Hopkins University Medical School where he later served both on the faculty and as dean. He was best known for his work in epidemiology and public health. He, too, has a historical marker near the Texas Inn.
Douglas was a young child when the Freeman family moved to Richmond. But those formative years and
the great influence of his father, who of course was a Lynchburger, surely set him on the path to scholarly and literary fame.
November 17, 1968, Marker Unveiled.
Mrs. Allen Wier Freeman, of Baltimore,
left, and Mrs. Douglas Southall Freeman unveiled historical markers here Saturday at birthplace of their husbands, 416 Main St. With them are Dr. Manning Voorhis and William R. Dunn.
 LYNCH’S FERRY
Photo courtesy The News & Advance