Robert Alexander Lindsay 1882-1987

BOGLE, LINDSAY, WILLIAMS

Posted By: M. Durr - IAGenWeb Volunteer
Date: 4/15/2010 at 19:08:16

Robert A. Lindsay, 104, died Friday, Aug. 21 at the Good Samaritan Center, Postville.

Funeral services were held August 24, 1987, 1:30 p.m. at Community Presbyterian Church, Postville. Rev. Terrance Hennesy officiated. Interment was in the Postville Cemetery. Schutte Funeral Service was in charge of arrangements.

Robert Alexander, the only son of Otis W. and Celia Bogle Lindsay, was born in Des Moines on November 10, 1882, and lived there until he graduated from West High School in 1899. He became a member of the United Presbyterian Church at an early age and was a member of that denomination at the time of his death.

His after-school hours and summer vacations were spent in various ways from carrying papers to working in the seed house of the Livingston family who were the people who produced the tomato as we now know that vegetable. It was with the Livingstons that he may have developed his interest in gardening. He also worked part time on the city directory. Brief vacations were occasionally spent with grandparents in Birmingham, Iowa.

A year after his high school graduation his parents moved to Canada and acquired land near Lacombe, Alberta. Robert secured citizenship in 1905, having been a British subject since his arrival in the Dominion.

In 1906 Robert returned to Iowa and entered college at Grinnell where he graduated in 1910. Summers he returned to Alberta after extensive trips through the Western States. His father's death in July 1910 made it necessary for him to remain in Alberta. Farming became his life work, and he made a home for his mother until her death in 1928.

In 1929 he married Rachel Williams of Postville, a Grinnell classmate, and for 16 years the couple made their home in Canada with occasional winter trips to Iowa. In 1945, because of the extreme age of Mrs. Lindsay's mother, they returned to Postville to live.

In 1956 Robert Lindsay once more became an American citizen in Federal Court in Dubuque under Judge Henry Gravens. The friends who had vouched for him when he applied for citizenship were Mr. Euclid Marston and Mr. Louis L. Hill. In Canada he had been interested in conservative politics so it was natural for him to become registered as a Republican.

He was an active member of the Postville Senior Citizens for many years.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Rachel, in 1979.

Survivors include nephews, nieces and cousins.

Pallbearers were Marvin Chevaller, Doug Appelman, Duane Thompson and Dave Appelman.

Postville, Iowa newspaper of the time clipping, hand date 1987. Posted for genealogical purposes, contributor is not related.