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J. J. LINDSAY, M.D. A community should be prouder of its
native than its adopted citizens, and, as a rule, it is. There
is a reason for this. The adopted citizen stands in the same
relation to his community that an adopted child does to a foster
parent, while the native born is like the parent’s own. And
large minded and generous hearted as one may be, he always finds
that there is for him an interest, an amount of sympathy and a
certain tender solicitude clustering about the child of his own
flesh and blood that he finds nowhere else. The relations are
reciprocal and the feelings of the respect and tenderness
mutual. Hence, the countless bursts of patriotic eloquence which
fills all speech and literature, and is perpetuated in endless
song.
The subject of this sketch, a
practicing physician of Manchester, Delaware county, resides
within a short distance of where his eyes first saw the light of
this world. He was born in Elk township, this county. He is “to
the manner born,” if that phrase has any significance severed
from its feudal origin: He came into this world July 24, 1858.
He is a son of one of the comparatively early settlers of the
county. His father, John Lindsay, moved into this locality in
1849 and settled in Elk township. He came from New York City to
this county, but was a native of Ireland. He was in early years
a carder and spinner, and found employment first in England,
having gone there when a boy, and afterwards in this country,
working in woolen mills. He was an industrious, capable workman,
and pursued his calling with a diligence and faithfulness that
marked him as an honest man. His health giving way under the
incessant toil and amidst the insalubrious and unscientific
conditions of the factories where he was a wage worker fifty
years ago, brought him West in search of other employment, and
he, in consequence, became a citizen of Delaware county. He
spent his declining years on a farm and gave to his family, and
through them to his adopted county, the results of his best
efforts with his remaining energies in the shape of a
comfortable but unpretentious farm home. He died in this county
April, 1872, at the age of fifty-two.
Dr. Lindsay’s mother, Mary
Bailey Lindsay, who is still living in this county, is a native
also of Ireland, having been born, as was the father, in the
County of Kings. They were married in Delaware county, Iowa. She
shared his fortunes to the date of his death, bearing him a
faithful and affectionate companionship. These, John and Mary
Bailey Lindsay, were the parents of ten children: Benjamin,
Thomas, Jane, John, Henry, Mary, Lizzie, Samuel, George and
Maggie.
The fourth of these and the
subject of this notice was reared on the farm, being trained to
the habits of industry and usefulness common to farm life. He
received an ordinary common school training, and finished with a
literary and scientific course at Lenox Collegiate Institute, at
Hopkinton, this county. He subsequently attended Bailie’s
Commercial College, at Dubuque, from which he graduated in
August, 1879. In the spring of 1880 he began reading medicine
under Drs. Bradley & Sherman, of Manchester, and when prepared
for lectures took a first course in the medical department of
the state university at Iowa City and finished at Bellevue
Hospital Medical College, of New York City, graduating in March,
1883. His course of reading was exhaustive, his preparation
thorough. It covered the general ground gone over by all
students, and, in addition thereto, private courses in
chemistry, toxicology and physical diagnosis. He located at once
to the practice, beginning at Greeley, in this county. Barring
the difficulties and embarrassments which almost of necessity
attend the first steps of the young physician, he made an
auspicious beginning, and his affairs steadily prospered. He was
successfully engaged in the practice at Greeley till June, 1888,
when, with a desire of extending his sphere of usefulness and
widening his field of observation and experience, he moved to
Manchester, opening an office and entering upon the practice
there. He has resided in Manchester since. He has given his time
wholly to his profession since beginning it and has met with
good success. His change of location involved some falling off
in his business, as a change always does; but this was only
temporary, and has been more than compensated for by the
increased opportunities which the change otherwise has brought
about.
Every member of a free
commonwealth is expected to bear arms in defense of public
safety when occasion demands, and every citizen must consent to
fill public office when called thereto by his fellow citizens.
Dr. Lindsay is as devoid of ambition for popular applause as any
living man, yet when called on he discharges his duties to the
community in which he lives with a zeal no less earnest and an
exactitude no less faithful than he brings to bear in his
attentions to his own personal affairs. He has served Delaware
county as coroner three years, being appointed to fill an
unexpired term of another and twice elected, fairing, however,
to qualify on his last election.
In October, 1887, Dr.
Lindsay married, the lady whom he took to wife being Miss Ella
L. Cole, of Colesburg, this county, a native of the county and a
daughter of one of the oldest settlers of the county, Thomas
Cole. Dr. and Mrs. Lindsay have a pleasant home in Manchester
and a large circle of friends in whose society they find not the
least of the enjoyments of this life. They are both members of
the Methodist church and zealous in all church work. The doctor
belongs also to the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order
of Odd Fellows, and he takes much interest in these societies,
giving them not only in their secret workings his earnest
support, but yielding to their broader plans and more
philanthropic purposes the loyalty of a sincere and humane
nature. |
