Lindsley family genealogy and biographies, ca. 1832-1998.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

Housed in Small Collections Box 10.

The majority of items are photocopies.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: Newsclippings, manuscripts, biographical sketches, personal chronologies, and genealogical material - most of it undated - relating to the Lindsley family of Nashville, Tenn., and its allied lines including the Lawrence, Berrien, and Condit families. Most of these families are traced back to New England and the Eastern Seaboard in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although a number of the folders indicate materials on one individual, researchers are advised that much of the material is intermixed, and information about a number of different people and a variety of surnames are included in nearly every folder.

Biographical material about Philip Lindsley includes his involvement with the University of Nashville and his other educational and scholarly endeavors. Materials about John Berrien Lindsley document his involvement with the University of Nashville, particularly its medical school, his role in the founding of Montgomery Bell Academy, and his activities as a minister, educator, and doctor. An account about John Berrien Lindsley's presence at the death of former President Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage is also included. Materials relating to Sarah "Sallie" McGavock Lindsley and her daughter, Louise Grundy Lindsley, provide information about the two women's involvement in the founding and early years of the Ladies Hermitage Association. Biographical information about John Trimble Lindsley includes a summary of his activities as a railroad surveyor and real estate agent in the early twentieth century in Nashville. Occasional mention is made throughout the collection about the family's involvement in the Presbyterian church.

Three folders contain materials copied from the Lindsley Family Papers at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

One folder contains genealogical materials compiled by Dorothy G. Lindsley of Texas.

Cite as: Lindsley Family Genealogy and Biographies, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

Margaret Lindsley Warden, granddaughter of John Berrien Lindsley;,Gift;,date of acquisition unknown.,Acc. RT-335.

John Berrien Lindsley birthday tribute,Margaret Lindsley Warden;,Gift;,1998.,Acc. RT-336.

Nathaniel Lawrence material, photocopied from Crom Tidwell notebook, original in possession of donor;,Margaret Lindsley Warden;,Gift;,1972.,Acc. RT-337.

The Lindsley Family Papers are housed at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

The Margaret Lindsley Warden Papers, ca. 1897-1997, primarily consisting of an autobiography and local history research notes, among other materials, is also housed in the Special Collections Division of the Nashville Public Library.

The Lindsley family was a prominent family in nineteenth-century Nashville, Tenn. Philip Lindsley, the progenitor of the family in Nashville, was born on Dec. 21, 1786 in Basking Ridge, N.J. After attending private schools, he was educated at the College of New Jersey (later to become Princeton University). In 1813, he became a professor at his alma mater, and married Margaret Elizabeth Lawrence, daughter of Nathaniel Lawrence. In 1817, Lindsley became vice-president at the university, and in 1822, acting president. Meanwhile, he gained recognition as one of the preeminent scholars of classical languages in the United States. In 1823, he was offered the presidency of Cumberland College in Nashville, as well as similar positions at other institutions, all of which he declined. A year later, however, he accepted the position at Cumberland College, renaming it University of Nashville. Lindsley's vision was to make Nashville a center of learning in the region, and he is credited with giving the city the nickname "Athens of the Southwest" - in later years, modified to "Athens of the South." In 1850 the university, except for its Medical Department, was closed due to a cholera epidemic, and Lindsley resigned. His wife Margaret died in 1845, and he remarried in 1849 to Mary Ann Myers, whose deceased husband had been the founder of New Albany Theological Seminary in New Albany, Ind. Lindsley took a position at the seminary , and died in May 1855 in Nashville when visiting the city in his role as a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.

John Berrien Lindsley, the son of Philip and Margaret Lindsley, was born in Princeton, N.J. on Oct. 24, 1822, and came to Nashville, Tenn. as a small child. He received his education at the University of Nashville, and at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, where he received his M.D. in 1843. He was present at the death of President Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage on June 8, 1845. In 1846 he pastored Presbyterian churches at the Hermitage and in Smyrna, Tenn., and was ordained as an evangelist at the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville. In 1850, he helped establish the Medical Department of the University of Nashville where he served as a professor and its first dean. A year later, he was elected to membership in the American Medical Association. In 1855, when the rest of the university reopened after its closure due to the cholera epidemic, Lindsley became chancellor. Also in 1855, Western Military Institute merged with the University of Nashville. In 1857, he married Sarah McGavock. During the Civil War, he supported the Union, and acted to prevent damage to the University during the Union occupation of Nashville. In 1866 he became superintendent of Nashville public schools and in 1867 he helped establish Montgomery Bell Academy. In 1870 he resigned from the University and aided in the establishment of the Tennessee College of Pharmacy. He became president of the Tennessee State Teacher's Association in 1875, and became health officer for the city of Nashville the following year. In the latter part of his life, he worked ceaselessly in education, health and medicine, and became a strong advocate for prison reform. He died in Nashville on Dec. 7, 1897.

Sarah "Sallie" McGavock was born in Nashville, Tenn. on July 19, 1830, the daughter of Jacob and Louisa Grundy McGavock. She was the sister of Randal McGavock, a mayor of Nashville and a Confederate colonel. She married John Berrien Lindsley in 1857. Although her husband supported the Union, Sallie later went on to become a charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1894. She also became president of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Confederate Soldiers' Home near the Hermitage. She was instrumental in the establishment of the Ladies' Hermitage Association, and its acquisition of President Andrew Jackson's home. She was serving as regent of the Ladies' Hermitage Association when she died on July 5, 1903.

Louise Grundy Lindsley was born on March 12, 1858 in Nashville, Tenn., the daughter of John Berrien and Sallie McGavock Lindsley. She graduated from the State Normal College (later Peabody State Normal School) in 1879. In 1889, she became a charter member of the Ladies Hermitage Association, subsequently designing the badge for the organization. She followed in her mother's footsteps, becoming regent of the Ladies' Hermitage Assocation in 1912, and promoted the group, nationally. She became national president of the Women's Auxiliary to the Southern Commercial Congress in 1915. During World War I, she was involved with the Tennessee Division of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense; was appointed as a speaker by the National Bureau of Speakers; and organized the Nashville Housewives' League. She also belonged to the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association, as well as a number of civic and charitible organizations. She died in July 1944 in Nashville.

John Trimble Lindsley, the son of Adrian VanSinderen Lindsley and Eliza Melvina Trimble, and grandson of Philip Lindsley, was born in East Nashville on Dec. 17, 1858. He attended the University of Nashville, Vanderbilt University, and finally Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn. where he received his degree in civil engineering. Upon graduation, for a short time, he worked with Wilbur F. Foster, but then left Nashville to work in a variety of locations as a railroad surveyor. He later returned to Nashville, partnering with his brother in the real estate field. He became president of the Nashville Real Estate Board in 1918. He married Henrietta Ridley on Nov. 5, 1890. They had six children, and she died in 1930. The following year, he married Mrs. Mamie Ridley Nichol. He died Mar. 15, 1936 at his home in Nashville.

In English

Most items collected or created by members of the Lindsley family. Some materials may have come from other unidentified donors, although the majority of the collection was donated by Margaret Lindsley Warden in two separate donations on unidentified dates, sometime prior to 2000. John Berrien Lindsley birthday tribute materials were donated by Margaret Lindsley Warden in 1998. Photocopies of some items concerning Nathaniel Lawrence, hand-written by Philip Lindsley, come from the Crom Tidwell notebook, and were copied by and donated to the library by Margaret Lindsley Warden in 1972.

Process;,2008;,Linda Barnickel;,removed from Family History Ephemera Subject Files.

No further accruals are expected.