Or, Subtitled: “All My Life, My First and Chief Desire Was not Money but Knowledge, Learning, and Wisdom“
When I ended my previous posting providing information about the life of Samuel Asbury Lindsey (1825/6 – 1865), son of Dennis Lindsey and Jane Brooks, I told you I’d write a subsequent one about Samuel’s children. Before I begin that account, however, I’d like to mention something I intended to say in the posting I have just linked, and forgot to include. This is about Samuel’s name.
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Begats and Bequeathals 
Hi William. I’ve dug up some more information on John Dennis Lindsey and his children. Your conjecture was correct: he and Mary and the Devanney family did go to Texas. I find a widowed Mary Devanney Lindsey on the 1880 census in Cooke County, Texas (S.D. 3, E.D. 113. Page 26 (251B stamped)). In the household is her father Alex Devanney and brother George Devanney, Mary had four daughters: Lavisa b. 1873, Matilda b. 1875, Sarah b. 1876 (this appears to match with Mary Jane), and Ada b. 1879. In 1900 Colbert County, Alabama, I find Elleck and Matilda Devaney, with two grandchildren in the household, Lou V. (Louvisa) b. Jul 1879 and Helda (Tilda?) b. Sep 1885 (S.D. 6, E.D 19, Sheet 12B (209B stamped)). I find an Alabama death record for Louvisa F. Hartman, daughter of John Lindsey and Mary Bickford (sic), died 11 Jan 1947 in Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, age 73. And a Matilda C. (Lindsey) Sockwell (1874-1923) buried in Leighton, with a linked father John E. Lindsey, born Mar 1832 in Alabama, died 27 Oct 1879 in Cooke County, Texas. Don’t know what to make of this last item. The birth date doesn’t match John Dennis Lindsey (who should have been born ca. 1853), but the death date appears appropriate, and his widow and family were definitely in that county at the same time. The Lindsey-Devanney marriage record definitely says John D. Lindsey, and the fact of naming a daughter Louvisa definitely ties him to the Hunters. Is this J. E. Lindsey actually John Dennis or someone else entirely?
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None of this adds up. Here is the obituary for Louisa (Louvisa?) Hartman in Huntsville: Rites Held for Mrs. Hartman. It lists surviving sisters Mrs. Sarah Hall and Mrs. H. T. Lindsey of Trenton, Tennessee. Maybe this is the wrong woman, not Louvisa Lindsey? But the death record does say her father is John Lindsey. The 1880 census does list a sister Sarah… could Mary Jane have just been left off the 1880 census, and Sarah be a different sister? I find a death record for Mary Jane (Lindsey) Green, died 28 Apr 1915 in Colbert County, buried in Glendale Cemetery — so she wouldn’t have been a survivor in 1947 anyway. Or could this all just be an extremely remarkable coincidence of names?
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Matilda Lindsey was already married to Lewis Sockwell in 1900 in Colbert County (S.D. 8, E.D. 14, Sheet 2B (64B stamped)) and died in 1923 before Louvisa/Louisa in 1947. So “Helda” in the 1990 census — born 1885, after John Lindsey’s death — is a different sister, the H. T. Lindsey named in the obituary.
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Okay, so I think I’ve straightened it out a bit more. Louisa J. Hartman is not Louvisa Lindsey. Louvisa Lindsey married Fred W. Bradford in Colbert County and died 1907 there. “Helda” that I misread from the 1900 census is actually “Adda L.,” the Ada we were expecting, and the birthdate was Jan 1879. “Sarah” from the 1880 census is probably just (Mary) Jane, because I can find no other record of her. But who is “J. E.” Lindsey? Either that is somebody else who coincidentally died in 1879, or whoever erected the tombstone was completely mistaken about John Dennis’s name and birthdate.
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Joseph, thank you so much for this thread of comments with valuable information helping to fill in the line of John Dennis Lindsey. You do first-rate genealogical sleuthing, and if I can ever get caught up, I want to incorporate this new Lindsey material and also the Dutton material you have shared into my postings here, with a note acknowledging that this information came from you. I am very grateful for your generosity in sharing it!
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Hi William. I wanted to let you know that I’m in the process of publishing my Dutton book, which includes a chapter on the Evan Todhunter and John T. Hunter family, and includes some of the Lindsey photos you shared and references your site. I hope it will be a worthy contribution to research on the Hunter family. If you would like to check it out, I am offering pre-sales here: https://www.zdutton.org/book
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Thanks so much for sending me this notice, Joseph. I will definitely get a copy and will share the announcement with the Lindsey DNA group I moderate, in which there are a lot of folks who are descendants of Evan Todhunter and John T. Hunter. Congratulations on having the book ready to publish!
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