Mr. Freese was born in Levant, Penobscot county, Maine, on November 1st, 1816. His father was a farmer, but Andrew was of such slender frame and weak constitution that he was completely unfitted for farming life. His father destined him to be a printer, and took him to the nearest printing office to show him how types were set and newspapers printed. The boy was not favorably impressed with what he saw, and begged to be allowed to enter college. This was considered out of the question, his father being too poor to provide the necessary funds. But the boy's heart was set upon it, and he thought that by teaching school for a time he could obtain money enough to complete his own education. This idea he carried into execution, and had no sooner entered on the business of teaching than he realized that he had found his true vocation. He continued to teach and study until his collegiate course was completed, and then he resolved to fit himself for the business of teaching by studying the best systems of education, as laid down in the most approved books and practiced in the most successful schools. He examined the best school buildings, and brought away plans of construction, and models of their furniture. The most thorough teachers were consulted as to the results of their experience, and when he had thus acquired a thorough mastery of the whole science of teaching, instead of setting out as an educational empiric, he resolved to seek the West as a better field for turning his knowledge to account, than was the East, where educators were far too numerous to make the business profitable. [Illustration: Yours Truly, Andrew Freese] Mr. Freese came to Cleveland in 1840, and offered his services to the Board of School Managers as a teacher. His rare ability was appreciated, he was immediately engaged, and was at once recognized as the head of the schools. There was then only the general school law to work under. The law as then understood, made it almost a crime to give instruction in the higher branches of even an English education. There was then no high schools, or graded schools in the great State of Ohio. To Cleveland, and to Mr. Freese, belong the honor of establishing the first free high school in the State. The scholars from that school may now be found in almost every State in the Union, eminent in all departments of life. They have been met with as Governors, jurists, mechanicians, and artists, and the first inquiry from them _all_ has been, "Is Mr. Freese still with you? All I am, and all I have, I owe to him; may God forever bless him."