William "Tutty" Baker, credited as the founder of Freeport, Illinois

Freeport, Illinois

Freeport is a city in and the county seat of Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 26,443 at the 2000 census. The mayor of Freeport is George W...

, built a trading post

Trading post

A trading post was a place or establishment in historic Northern America where the trading of goods took place. The preferred travel route to a trading post or between trading posts, was known as a trade route....

 on the banks of the Pecatonica River

Pecatonica River

The Pecatonica River is a tributary of the Rock River, long, in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois in the United States.The word Pecatonica is an anglicization of two Algonquian language words: Bekaa , which means "slow", and niba, which means "water", forming the conjunction Bekaaniba or...

. A generous man, Baker began operating a free ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

across the river and even invited travelers into his home for meals and lodging. According to one story, Freeport earned its name after Baker's wife, Elizabeth Baker, asked him if his river port was a "Free Port", because of the number of people he didn't charge to ferry across the river.

Freeport celebrates the founder of the town with Tutty Baker days in the downtown area.