Freedom Lippincott had finished his apprenticeship in
1676 and married a young lady from Burlington named Mary Custons four years
later. They already had two small sons together (Samuel and Thomas), and they
were both anxious to build a new home that would better meet the needs of a
growing and prosperous family.
2 Hence, in 1687, Freedom purchased just shy of three
hundred acres of good farmland in Burlington County and promptly erected a new
home for them on the land. In addition to that, he built a sturdy barn and a
nice shed for his tanning and blacksmithing business.
3 Over the next six years, they added three more
children to their tribe (Judith, Mary and Freedom). First Samuel and then
Thomas had gotten big enough to help their father with his farming, tanning and
blacksmithing. Sometimes they would let little Freedom hand his father a tool
or a horseshoe, but his mother still kept him in the house with her and the
girls most of the time. Nevertheless, the little guy was always happy when his
father and brothers returned from their chores in the evenings and patted him
on top of his head. “He will be so glad when he is able to go out with you
boys,” Mary told them.
4 Freedom’s shed was hanging full of hides, and his
fields were planted with corn, wheat and hay. His cows, pigs and chickens were
doing well too, but his blacksmithing business had suffered of late. Ever since
George Elkington had set up shop in the county, Freedom had received fewer and
fewer requests for his services as a blacksmith. Oh sure, he was still the county
favorite for shoeing horses, but most of the heavier work went to his rival.
5 Still, that wasn’t his only worry. There was also
the matter of his mother’s recent death on his mind. Abigail had died at the
beginning of the month (June). Although he had known that the end was near, he
still couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that both of his parents were now
gone. He had been on his own for many years, but the finality of this
separation had hit him like a ton of bricks.
6 The sun was just peeping over the horizon as Freedom
finished his breakfast that morning. In fact, he was still patting his stomach
in satisfaction when he heard a knock at the front door. As he opened the door,
he was surprised to see John Woolman standing before him.
7 “Hello, Freedom, will you be able to shoe a horse
for me today?” Woolman asked. “Is George sick?” he asked before thinking. “He’s
very busy right now,” Woolman replied with a frown. “I’m sorry – I don’t mind,”
Freedom reassured him.
8 “I’ve got the horse with me now. Can you take a look
at him?” John asked. Freedom followed his neighbor out the door and approached
the waiting animal. John pointed, and he lifted the horse’s right front hoof to
examine it.
9 “Leave him with me, and I’ll be able to get to him
after I feed and water my stock,” Freedom told him. Woolman looked relieved.
“Thank you, I’m going to need him tomorrow morning,” he explained. “I’ll have
him ready,” Lippincott assured him.
10 As he fed and watered the stock, Freedom heard some
thunder rumbling off in the distance. “I had better hurry, or I am going to be
drenched,” he thought to himself.
11 He led the horse to his shed and tied it to one of
the posts just beyond his anvil. Fortunately, he had already started a fire
burning in his small forge earlier that morning in anticipation of completing a
few projects of his own.
12 Shoeing a horse was second nature to him. He gently
lifted the animal’s hoof again and scraped out the muck and dirt that had
collected there. Next, he trimmed the sole of the hoof to make it more even and
placed the shoe against it to ascertain what he would need to do to make it fit
properly. Having observed that the shoe would have to be widened a little, he
placed it into the fire to heat the metal so that it would be more malleable.
13 The thunder was getting closer, and he noticed that
the boys had left one of his buckets on top of the fence that ran up to the
barn. He had walked about ten steps toward the bucket when the lightning
struck. Freedom never knew what had happened. It killed him instantly.
14 Mary, however, had heard the loud clap of thunder;
and she knew that it had struck something very close to the house. She hurried
to the door and stepped outside. As she looked around, she noticed smoke rising
from the direction of the shed and barn. “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom!” she
called in desperation; but there was no reply.
15 She ran toward the shed. She saw his still smoking
body lying on the open ground before her, and she knew immediately that he was
dead. In one terrible moment, she had gone from a happily married woman to a
widow facing the prospect of raising five children by herself.
16 “He just buried his mother less than two weeks
ago,” she thought to herself as the tears streamed down her face. “I will hate
June for the rest of my life,” she predicted as she ran toward the nearest
neighbor’s house for help.
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