THE DECATUR HERALD - Jan 5, 1928 Submitted by Pat Hageman MRS. JOHN LINDSAY DIES AT 92; CAME TO DECATUR AS A GIRL IN COVERED WAGON Mother of Twelve Children Saw Many Changes in Her 77 Years of Residence and Had Regard of Large Circle of Friends Mrs. John Lindsay, 92, died in her home at Cantrell and Webster streets at 9:15 o'clock Wednesday evening after an illness of two weeks. She had been in her usual health up to a few days before Christmas when she took to her bed with indigestion. Her condition showed little change until Wednesday when she lapsed into unconsciousness. Up to that time her mind had remained remarkably clear, and she welcomed those who came to her bedside. With her at her death were four of her daughters and three sons, seven of her 11 living children. The funeral will be in the home at 10 o'clock Friday morning with burial in North Fork cemetery. Mrs. Lindsay's life span covered the period in American history from Jackson to Coolidge. She came to Illinois when the frontier was just passing and when the state boasted only 10 incorporated cities. She had known Decatur from the time it was a little country village without a railroad until old landmarks were affaced and the familiar place names were giving way to modern designations. Decatur owes much to the Kentucky immigration and of this drift that came in the early and middle part of the last century, Mrs. Lindsay was a part. With her father and mother and three brothers and sisters she came to Macon Co. in 1850. She was born in Gerrard Co, Kentucky, Sept 15, 1835, the daughter of James and Elizabeth Willis Nicholson. Her oldest brother, Edward Willis Nicholson became the father of Meredith Nicholson, the well-known Indiana novelist. It was a slow, toilsome journey overland in the wagon. The family cow followed behind. Meals were cooked in an iron oven set up over the campfire. Mrs. Lindsay only recently had recalled the floods of that year which made necessary a long detour to find a ford. The journey was interrupted for months in Crawfordsville, Ind., owing to the illness of the mother. In the next sping it was resumed. They settled first near what is now Turpin station southeast of Decatur, but soon moved to a farm in Long Creek. A portion of this land Mrs. Lindsay retained throughout her life. LESSONS FROM FAMOUS TEACHER Theirs were the common experiences of the pioneers. Advantages were few. Mrs. Lindsay had had some schooling in Kentucky. Her education was to continue through her life. She attended a singing school conducted by John Wesley Powell who was to achieve --- --- soldier and the explorer of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. His niece was the late Maude Powell, the violinist. Maj. Powell's pupils used to sing the geography lessons. Children of the pioneers remember some of those old rhymes. Six years before the Nicholson family had taken up their residence in Macon County, there came to Decatur one John Lindsay, a Tennesee youth. He was born in Bethesday, the son of Elmore and Margaret Wilson Lindsay. The Wilson's were an old North Carolina family from Mecklenburg and were sturdy patriots in the revolution. There was a tradition that a Wilson woman, whose place was visited by Cornwallis' raiders in the absence of her men, had so effectively argued with the soldiers that they withdrew discomfited. JOHN LINDSAY COMES FROM TENNESSEE Elmore Lindsay had gone off to the Mexican War and had not returned. The widow with her son and daughter came to Decatur when John was 10. The boy was received into the family of Judge Charles Emmerson, leader of the bar --- and one of the best read judges that ever occupied the circuit bench. For a time he attended Mr. Zion academy but his best education was obtained from reading law with Judge Emmerson. John Lindsay even as a boy was an ardent abolitionist and was at no pains to conceal his opinions. He met Edna Nicholson, who was but six months his junior, and they were married Jan 1, 1866. After a year in Mechanicsburg where John Lindsay taught school, and where their first child was born, they returned to Decatur. In the lawn shaded with oak and elm trees at Webster and Cantrell streets, there is a little depression which marked the basement of the house which John Lindsay built for his wife and growing family. It was among the first in that neighborhood. Later it was moved farther to the north and became a part of the present Lindsay home, which is one of the landmarks of this portion of the city. The sills of the original house cut from forest trees on the land are still in place. ENLISTED IN CIVIL WAR John Lindsay, of course, enlisted when the Civil War came. His was one of the families that the conflict divided. He used to tell of fraternizing with relatives on the Confederate side when the day's fighting was over. Lung fever struck him down when he was with Grant in the Vicksburg campaign, and after 18 months service, he was sent home from Island No. 10, a semi-invalid. From the effects of his illness, he never fully recovered. He went into the service as a member of Battery I of the 2d Illinois Artillery, organized in Peoria. Before tilling came in, John Lindsay in partnership with Thomas Davis of Macon, drained a good many of the farms in this vicinity by means of a mole ditcher, a machine which, dragged by several yokes of oxen, cut a tunnel through the soft much, the surface being undisturbed save for the knife-edge standard to which the plow was attached. A PERFECT PARTNERSHIP In this way and with some law practice, Mr. Lindsay supported his family in the early part of his married life. The life of the Lindsays was a perfect partnership. They both brough culture to the little home. They read together Shakespeare and the translations of Iliad and Odyssey, and the family Bible. Mr. Lindsay's well thumbed unabridged Webster bespeaks their curiosity. John Lindsay traveled little, but for his day he was an educated man. To the end of his life he was interested in the classics and was familiar with the works of the Latin authors. Mrs. Lindsay's love of reading was not difficult to understand. For education she had a reverence that made no sacrifice too heavy, if it could see her children through school and college. IN THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS It was not remarkable that a man with John Lindsay's social sense and humanitarian zeal should try to find a wider means of expression than the law afforded. In 1876 he and a partner leased the Decatur Review, then a weekly. From that time to the end of his life, he was in newspaper work. His children joined him. His wife had no direct part in the publishing enterprise. The little house at Cantrell and Webster street finally sheltered 12 children. The mother was reasonably busy with home cares. Mrs. Lindsay, indeed, never took part in public and civic enterprises in which other women were embarking. She did her part in making a home for the husband and the boys and girls that were much concerned with everything that went on in Decatur. John Lindsay, in 1885, started the Labor Bulletin. He brought in with him a young painter in the Decatur coffin factory, Ethelbert Stewart of Maroa, who was greatly interested in the labor movement. Later, Mr. Lindsay recommended his associate to Gov. Richard Oglesby for a state position, and today Mr. Stewart is the veteran commissioner of labor statistics in the Department of Labor in Washington. CHILDREN CARRY ON PAPER The Bulletin had been going six years when John Lindsay died. His older children carried on the paper until it was consolidated with the Decatur Herald. It was a family enterprise. On her husband's death, Mrs. Lindsay found herself with seven dependent children, her aged father and his wife to care for, her pension stopped, and a $1,000 paving assessment due on her property. Mrs. Lindsay never worried. She planned, and she had great faith. Some families are able to organize for team work. Hers was one. While with a fine unselfishness she effaced herself, she was the recognized leader. Although in later years her children were scattered, the strong family consciousness was to remain. She gave her children a few homely maxims. One of these was: "Do the hardest and most disagreeable task first." ALWAYS THE MOTHER Long after her children came of age they returned to their mother for counsel. Mrs. Lindsay had not merely worldly wisdom, but a natural gentlewomanliness. The thing to say and the thing to do that would give other people happiness and satisfaction came to her instinctively. Mrs. Lindsay had genius at nursing. When she brough one of her brood through a desperate attack of diphtheria which the doctor feared would prove fatal, that wise man said that the credit for the child's survival was all hers. From the time that she was a young woman, Mrs. Lindsay was in demand for nursing and many a family had to thank her for unceasing vigilance at the sick bed. She went to the house of mouring to give her ministrations to the dead, and until she was past 70 she continued these kindly services. ADMIRED BY DISTINGUISHED NEPHEW As she grew older her children insisted that she lay aside some of the cares that she had borne uncomplainingly. She made visits to Oklahoma City, Biringham, Ala, and Colorado, but she limited every visit to two weeks. She was still the home-keeper. Even in her last illness when her children came back to her bedside, she was concerned about her duties as a hostess. Her resident children and grandchildren helped to keep her young in mind and sumpathetic with youth. Between her nephew, Meredith Nicholson, and herself there was a strong attachment they frequently corresponded, and she assisted him in compiling the records of the Nicholson family. Her clear memory made her one of the authorities on early Decatur. Some of the scenes and places had for her a significance that they could have for few other persons. For instance, she was never reconciled to the change of the nameof the Cowford to the Nelson park as the name of the bridge for Decatur's principal eastern entrance, for she remembered not only the first bridge, but the ford before it, and she recalled bright eyed girls standing on the structure to greet the soldiers that came marching into Decatur in Civil War days. Mrs. Lindsay formerly was a member of the Christian church, but when the division came in Decatur, she, with a number of others, went on to the Congregational fellowship, in which she was active to the end of her life. Mrs. Lindsay was the mother of 12 children, all but one of whom, Laura Jane the eldest, are living. They are Margaret Ellis Lindsay, Mary Willis Lindsay, Nettie Sherman Lindsay who made their home with their mother, Charles Emerson Lindsay, James Nicholson Lindsay, and William Proctor Lindsay all of Iklahoma City, Mrs. Edna May Swartz of Berkeley, Cal., John Wilson Lindsay, Peoria, Arthur Oliver Lindsay, Decatur, Mrs. Ada Emily Roundy, Laconia, NH. There are 20 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. ------------------------------------------------------------ USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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