Frank G Freer

“Frank Freer of Ithaca as here yesterday to attend the funeral of his aunt, Mrs. Crans.”

“Slaterville Springs,” Ithaca Journal, March 30, 1915, 9.

"After 31 years of continuous service in the employ of the Ithaca Traction Corporation during which he has never missed a day unless on account of illness, Frank Freer, 56, motorman on the East Ithaca line for the past 24 years, today announced that he had sent in his resignation to he company to become effective Saturday, July 26.
...
Mr. Freer has come to be known by a great many people, a number of whom are salesmen who make frequent trips to this city and have become well acquainted with him. They always spoke highly of his courtesy and friendliness toward passengers. During his 31 years of service he has never had any serious accidents as the records show, although he has had a few minor mishaps.
Mr. Freer started with the company on September 3, 1893, and received at that time a wage of 12 1/2 cents an hour. That was the time of the five-cent fare, however. The present wage-scale is 46 cents an hour. ...He has accepted a position at the Little Kraft Shop on North Aurora street and will begin his new duties sometime in September."

"Motorman For 31 Years Quits Local Service," Ithaca Journal, July 22, 1924, 7.

"Motorman No. 100 is through! When the East Ithaca car rolls into the barns tonight, Frank Freer, veteran employe[sic] of the local traction company, will have made his last run. ...
There were those days over 30 years ago when he first went on the job. He was a conductor then on the only main trolley line in Ithaca, running from the Lehigh Valley station to College avenue. Only 18 men made up the force, while today nearly triple that number are employed by the company. Out of the original 18, Frank Freer will tell you, with a little catch in his throat, that only two--Bill Brooks, master mechanic at the [car] barns, and Casper Linderberry, transportation superintendent--are on the job today. And those cars of the early days--what crude and unfinished specimens they were.
In the very beginning, even before he was on the line, motorman No. 100 can recall those tiny trolleys which accommodated but four passengers on one side and three on the other with a stove occupying most of the remaining space. Then for years the cars had no vestibule. Many a winter morning the men at the control stood in snow over their shoes, striving to guide their charges safely over the icy rails, their hands so cold that it was necessary to wrap the right wrist about the break to make it work. Newspapers spread under their coats were the only means of keeping the cold out with the exception of frequent periods of vigorous shoveling when the drifts stalled the cars far out in the wilds....
Nor were the cars in those days equal to the modern trolleys in many other respects. Frequently one would jump the track and had to be put back on with the aid of a few stones and a dozen healthy pushes.  ...
As one business man put it recently, 'The first time they rode on Frank's car they became acquainted with him, the second time they would talk to him and the third, they would know him well enough to call him names.' And motorman No. 100 harbors recollections of these bantering sessions which are as happy as any of his life."

"Frank Freer, Motorman No. 100, Quits Tonight After 31 Years of Service; Traveling Public Will Miss Him," Ithaca Journal-News, July 26, 1924, 5.

Frank G Freer, employee The Little Kraft’s Shop, home 613 Utica

1940 city directory 

Frank G Freer, retired, home 611 Utica St

1949 and 1951 Ithaca directories

"G. Frank Freer, 85, of 613 Utica St. died Thursday, Aug. 30, 1953, after a short illness. For a number of years he was a motorman for the Ithaca Street Railway Company. He retired before the company replaced the streetcars with buses.
He was a member of the Tabernacle Baptist Church and of the Amalgamated Association of Street Car and Motor Coach Operators Union.
He is survived by two sons, Raymond R. Freer and L. Grant Freer, and a granddaughter, Mrs. Lewis Jansen, all of Ithaca."

Obituary of G. Frank Freer, Ithaca Journal, July 31, 1953, 3.

Frank G. Freer, 1868-1953

Find a Grave Memorial: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176500479/frank-g.-freer