Freestone County, Texas
Reflections



Freestone Past/Present
by J. R. “Sonny” Sessions

[This appeared in the Freestone "Times" on April 18, 2006, page 7-B]

Colonel Joseph Lindley, Part II

The following information came from the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. 
"Lindley, Joseph" The Handbook of Texas Online.  Biography: 

LINDLEY, JOSEPH (1793-1874). Joseph Lindley, son of Simon and Anna (Stanley) 
Lindley, was born on January 7, 1793, in Orange County, North Carolina. Early 
in 1808 he moved with his family to Christian County, Kentucky, and afterward 
to what is now Bond County, Illinois. Late in 1811, when Lindley was eighteen 
years old, conflicts with Indians motivated settlers to build a fort near 
Greenville. During the War of 1812 the family lived in the fort, but after
four years of Indian attacks and military protection, they moved to 
Edwardsville, Illinois. Lindley fought in the War of 1812 as a United States 
Ranger. He married Nancy Ann Hicks on June 17, 1817, in Bond County, Illinois,
and they moved to Humphreys County, Tennessee. Ten years later they arrived in 
Texas with four children. Lindley was unable to get clear title to his 2,592 
acres of land because he was involved in the Fredonian Rebellion at 
Nacogdoches. He received title to 4,428 acres in Montgomery County on April 6,
1835. He participated in the siege of Bexarqv in 1835, signed the letter of 
endorsement required by the Mexicans for the entry into Texas of Alamo 
defender Jonathan Lindley, and fought at the battle of San Jacinto. Mirabeau 
B. Lamar, president of the Republic of Texas, appointed Lindley an Indian 
agent with a charge to keep the peace. He was an elected civil officer for 
Montgomery County in 1839 and laid out the first road from Austin to the 
"springs at the headwaters of the San Marcos" (Aquarena Springsqv), so that a
military post could be established there in 1840. He was appointed by the 
Congress of the Republic of Texas to survey a road from Washington to the 
Sabine in 1844. About 1846 the Lindleys moved to Limestone County, where they 
settled four miles north of the site of present-day Mexia. Lindley was elected
county commissioner in 1854 and served one term. On January 20, 1874, he died.
He was buried in Limestone County and later reinterred at the State Cemetery
on Memorial Day, May 26, 1986, during the Texas Sesquicentennial.

--------------------------

Grandpa's Report

Memorial services for lifelong friend Juliette ManahanDavis after extensive
medicial problems.  Passed many pleasant hours with she and husband Uel as
friends and members of the Freestone Co. Historical Comm.  Uel knew more
area history than anyone else know.  My first memories of early Fairfield
moving there in 1931 and living in the old jail involve Juliette's brother,
JR, who working as a soda jerker in the old Johnson Drugstore on the west side
of the square and somehow acquiring Dr. Peppers.  Juliette very active in the 
Historical Comm. and with her loss and other recent ones we sure need more
young people involved as us old heads about gone.

Grandma and I to Charleston, South Carolina to meet with WWII Navy LST buddies
with the ranks growing thinner each time.  Got together for first time in 50
years in 1954 and met nearly every year since.

...