Friendship Lodge No. 22, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, founded the Odd Fellows Female Collegiate Institute here in 1852. During the Civil War, Federal troops occupied the two-story brick building and used it as a hospital until an accidental fire destroyed it. After the war, the lodge filed a claim for the damage, but the school was not rebuilt. Although Trenton survived military attacks and occupation by both sides during the war, it recovered slowly from the conflict. Julius Freed, a German-Jewish merchant who moved to Trenton after the war, built a house on the institute site and helped the town recover. Freed had served in the 15th Tennessee Infantry of the Army of the Tennessee, was wounded at Perryville and Chickamauga and during the Atlanta campaign, and after being captured during Hood’s attack on Nashville in December 1864 remained a prisoner of war until his release in May 1865. Though he had previously been in business in Memphis and Jackson, he settled in Trenton, opened a dry-goods store with Julius Ebert, married Henrietta Cohn in 1871, and built this Italianate-style house. Their sons became important local bankers and politicians, and the family made civic contributions including a fountain and baseball park. Dr. Frederick Freed also gave the city a collection of Veilleuse-Theieres, or night-light teapots, now housed at City Hall and regarded as a city symbol of Trenton.