Rev. Freeman D. Rickerson (1837-1892) - Baptist Minister

 

Bing AI

Freeman D. Rickerson was born on the 23rd of November, 1837, in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York.   He was the son of Daniel Wilcox Rickerson and his second wife, Malina Corpe. 

Rickerson received his theological education in Rochester, which had a Baptist seminary founded in 1850 (Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School today).   Instead of remaining in New York state, however, Rickerson felt called to minister in the Midwest.  He moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where he was licensed to preach in October of 1858.  After serving a period as an assistant pastor in Grinnell, Iowa, he was ordained in April 1859.  Thereafter, he was instrumental in founding and/or serving Baptist congregations in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.

While he was in Grinnell, Rev. Rickerson met and married Eunice Langworthy.  Like him, she and her family were from New York state.  They eventually had a daughter, Melina May, born in 1870 in Waukegan, Illinois.

In addition to being a man of the cloth, Rev. Rickerson was a high-ranking Mason, advancing to the rank of commander and grand prelate in the Grand Commandery of Illinois.  He was convinced that his religious faith and his Masonic ideals went hand in hand and so preached.  He is said to have been learned, honest and broad-minded, attributes not always evident in frontier preachers.

The Rickersons came to Phoenix in 1889, after Rev. Rickerson was appointed to fill the pulpit of the Baptist Church at 2nd Avenue and Jefferson.   When he arrived, Rickerson found the church in a neglected state and the treasury empty.   He remedied this by soliciting donations from more affluent churches back east, and a new building was eventually raised.

Rickerson proved to be tireless in his work but, after less than three years, heart disease cut short his tenure in Phoenix.  Although he was known to have been in declining health, his death still came as a shock to his congregation.   He was visiting at the home of B. F. McFall when he suffered an apoplexy and died on March 29, 1892. 

Chaplain Winfield Scott from Scottsdale preached the funeral sermon.  Rickerson being the  prelate of the Phoenix commandery at the time of his death, he was buried in Masons Cemetery, as befitting his high status in the order.

The Rickersons’ daughter Melina or “May”, as she preferred, wed John Swilling, Jr. in Phoenix in 1916.  It was a second marriage for both parties.  However, the union seems to have been of short duration; by 1920, May was living with her widowed mother in California.   

-by Donna L. Carr