Person:Alexander Lindsey (1)

My dates of birth and death are from ACL's tombstone, which I have seen. The tombstone identifies him as "Dr. A.L. Lindsey." Note that many documents, including ones with his own signature, show his middle initial as L., but descendants say that the name was Cobb. Did he have more than one middle name? Henry Carlton Lindsey's theory was that the letter C. may not have been clear in ACL's signature, and may have been read as an L. by some.

Since a 1 March 1858 federal land certificate to ACL's father places the family in Claiborne Psh., LA, at that time, it seems ACL was probably b. in Claiborne Psh.

According to MARK LINDSEY HERITAGE, ACL and Mary Ann Green married on 2 Nov. 1876 at Coushatta, LA, at the home of Ezekiel S. Green, MAG's father, with witnesses Jarret Hankins and W. Curry, and Rev. A. Ben Broughton performing the ceremony.

The Red River Psh. deed index lists a 23 Oct. 1891 deed of A.L. Lindsey to J.V. Barnes for land in sect. 24, twp. 13, range 9 west.

In 1896, ACL signed a petition for the construction of the Kansas City, Watkins, and Gulf railroad in Red River Psh., LA (Gwen Bradford Sealy, LEST WE FORGET [833 River Rd., Shreveport, LA 71105], p. vi). He signed as A.L. Lindsey.

ACL and family are on the 1900 census in ward 7 of Natchitoches Psh. (Provencal) (ED 77, house 25, line 17; 2 June). ACL is listed as A.L. Lindsey, b. Mch. 1858 in LA, parents b. in AL. He has been married 24 years, and is a farmer who is literate, renting his farm (farm sched. 9). Wife Mary A. was b. Oct. 1861 in LA, married 24 years, mother of 9 children, 9 living; she was b. LA, parents in AL. She, too, is literate. Children are Robert R., b. Aug. 1881, a day laborer (on his father's farm); Eddy E., b. Sept. 1883, a day laborer (on the farm); Benjamin D., b. Apr. 1887, in school; Aaron B., b. June 1889, in school; Cuemilla, b. July 1893; Myrta L, b. Nov. 1895; and Mary E., b. June 1889.

Note that the census is incorrect as to the number of children b. to the couple in 1900; they had had 11 children by that date. Nor am I sure why sons John Wesley and Clarence Edgerton are not listed in the household; neither was married by 1900.

I have a picture of ACL and some of his family taken about 1902-3, evidently at their home in Red River Psh. A copy is in MARK LINDSEY HERITAGE, p. 60. This shows the family seated outside a picket fence with the house in the background.

A 1902 photo that appeared in the 27 July 1978 COUSHATTA CITIZEN (see MARK LINDSEY HERITAGE, p. 64) shows A.C.L. and other members of the Holley Springs Farmers Union in April of that year. ACL is identified as Dr. A.L. Lindsey.

I find a 6 Dec. 1904 credit deed from A.L. Lindsey to Fannie M. Moore et al. listed in the Vendor Index of Bossier Psh. Conveyances (Bk. 23, 405).

On the 1910 census, AL is in ward 1, ED 95, Red River Psh. (sheet 28A, 411/411; 12 May). AL is 54, m. 35 years, b. LA, father b. MS, mother b. AL. He is a farmer with a general ?, literate, rents his farm (farm schedule 336). Wife Mary is 50, mother of 13 children, 12 living. She is b. LA, father AL, mother LA, and she reads and writes. In the household are children Bloomer, 19 a laborer at home; Clarence, 18, laborer at home; Cumilla, 15, at school; Mattie, 13, at school; and Emmett, 10, in school.

Note that in 1910-12, ACL attended medical school in Memphis. From family stories I have heard, he made the decision to study medicine rather suddenly, riding off on his horse and leaving his grown sons to manage the farm. For more on this, see file of his wife Mary Ann Green. Family stories say that ACL was an "eclectic" doctor; I've learned that the eclectic movement was a movement to use herbal and folk remedies, which was strong early in the 20th century, as it has become at the end of the century. I don't believe that ACL ever finished medical school; in those days in rural LA, a doctor could practice medicine without a license, after having "read medicine" with another experienced doctor.

I have a copy of a 26 Oct. 1916 order ACL sent to M.A. Winter Co. in Washington, D.C. for 12 boxes of Nalther tablets. The order is signed Dr. A.L. Lindsey, Coushatta, LA. ACL's granchildren Helen Blanche Lindsey Compere and Henry Carlton Lindsey believe that this order was for something the family called "grandpa pills," an all-purpose tablet they were given when they had any ache or pain. No one was quite sure what the pills contained.

On 1920 census in Red River Psh., LA, ward 2 (ED 121, sheet 2, l. 37). ACL is listed as a farmer who rents his farm. He is 62, b. LA, father b. LA, mother b. "United States." Wife Mary A. is 59, b. LA, parents b. LA. In the household is daughter Camilla (spelled "Camillar"), 25, b. LA. Also in the household is daughter Myrtice Price, 23, with daughter Julie, 3 years and 4 months.

In a Feb. 1987 interview with me, J.H. Snead, son of Emmett Snead and Etna Jones, told me that ACL was one of the last people in the vicinity of Coushatta to use a horse and buggy. He also spoke of ACL's passion for politics.

MARK LINDSEY HERITAGE, pp. 62-A and B, has a memoir of ACL written by ACL's grandson Henry Carlton Lindsey, entitled "Alexander Cobb Lindsey--Country Doctor." It reads as follows: "All of us grandchildren called him grandpaw....Our grandmother, Mollie Green Lindsey, was Granny to us. Grandpaw was a man who commanded attention and respect because he was `different' from most people we knew in his particular time and locale. He always seemed to be someone special; he carried himself with dignity and reserve even when he might be doing menial work in the field. Unlike most of the Lindseys, he was slight in stature, but always sure of himself and feisty. His speech was usually a little stilted and eloquent. He loved to speak in public and I can remember as a child some of his powerful rhetoric as he spoke to the families when we had memorial day reunions at `Old Chapel' (now Carol Creek) cemetery.

He was a man who disliked change and clung to 19th century ways and customs like a child who refused to part with a favorite toy. I have heard that when automobiles first came to Coushatta...he would pound them with his cane as he crossed the streets making them stop for him to cross, fighting them off like a Don Quixote attacking a spinning windmill. I remember his long white hair and white moustache, glasses, and deep eyes which squinted.

He farmed, in addition to being a country doctor, but I never remember seeing him in overalls or Khaki clothes. In the field he always wore a white dress shirt (without a collar) and dress trousers. He was different and proud of it. He was a Methodist and didn't mind telling you so.

In June, 1977 one of his sons, Clarence Liindsey told me about Grandpaw going away to Medical school at the University of Tennessee at Memphis. He decided late in life to do this, leaving his large family behind to run the farm while he was at medical school in 1910, 1911, and 1912. He spent the summers at home helping with the farming.

Grandpaw loved coffee and used to grind his own and drink it from a moustache cup. He loved to sit out on the front porch at night, rock and prop his feet up, hold his grandchildren in his lap, and sing to them. We used to think that he was a little partial to little Alec who had his name. His granddaughter, Julia Price, spent several of her teenage years with them and was a great help to them. He and Granny spent their last years with their son, Blouma.

Although not a Dentist, Grandpaw would pull teeth as a last resort when a `patient' came to him in great pain. We children used to love to observe his dental techniques. For an anesthetic, he would hand the patient a shot of whiskey and after he became relaxed, he would rear him back in a straight chair against the railing, put his knee in his chest, and yank the tooth out. I suppose that this could be called no-frills dentistry; no novacaine, no Xrays, no fillings, and no foolishness; just remove the offending tooth which is causing the pain. Besides, dentistry was not his `bag'; he was a medical doctor. He just loved removing pain.

Speaking of removing pain, about 1928 one of my cousins, Ray Lindsey and I were visiting Grandpaw and Granny on their farm and as we were walking down the hill to the creek ot go swimming and as we passed a bee hive a swarm of bees attacked us and we got stung on the arms and when we ran up the hill crying we ran into Grandpaw who quickly grabbed us and applied a quick `poltice' of a wad of chewing tobacco which he took from his jaw and tied it on tight with a red bandana handkerchief from his hip pocket. In just a few minutes the pain left us and the swelling subsided.

Grandpaw had an uncanny, indirect way of instructing his grandchildren in sex education, of sorts. He would call us into the living room (girls in separate sessions from the boys), and tell us that we were now old enough to learn the difference between boys and girls.. He would open a copy of Gray's anatomy book and tell us to read certain sections and look at the pictures. After we finished he would take the book and say, `Well, that's the way it is, and don't forget it.' I remember that I understood only a few of the medical and scientific words in the book but I remember remarking to my brother, B.D., that after that I sure knew from those pictures that girls really are different....

Our grand-daddy Lindsey in addition to being a little quaint and eccentric in some ways, was a great man of service to humanity in Red River Parish, Louisiana. He felt a true call to be of medical service to sick and suffering people of any race or station in life who needed him. Instead of serving at his convenience as many doctors to today--who will not make housecalls and hwo will see a patient during usual daytime office hours--he would always respond at any time, day or night, rain or shine. I saw him many times get out of bed on a rainy night, put on his `slicker,' take his doctor's bag and head for the barn to hook up his favorite horse, Dolly, to the buggy and head off into the lightning and rain to answer a call to help deliver a Negro baby or to try to go and help a child who had a serious case of whooping cough. Many times he would drive up to his house about daylight after being out on a call, eat breakfast and after a short nap, go out and begin plowing or working in his fields. During the years of the great depression, the only remuneration he would get for visiting and treating the sick would be a couple of dozen eggs, a chicken or two, or maybe some vegetables, but he would never complain, knowing that his was a calling for healing sickness and suffering, not just a way of making money. I stand in reverence and respect to this man, my grandfather."

Because of ACL's strong character, many family stories are told about him. My father, Benj. D. Lindsey, a grandson of ACL, often told me that his grandfather was a little, proud, fastidiously dressed man, who was careful about his clothes, and inordinately proud of his tiny feet. When sitting, he'd prop the feet on a pillow for all to admire. BDL and his siblings and cousins liked to sit on their grandfather's lap, and suddenly pull his moustaches, which would make him angry.

From what I have been told, ACL had quite a temper, which no one could curb, except for his slight, soft-spoken wife, who would hold a finger up, saying, "Now, Alec," and the storm would be over. ACL is said, too, to have been very stubborn. My uncle Carlton Lindsey told me about a time when ACL was getting onto a bus to go to Shreveport. But the bus was actually headed to Alexandria. All his family was there, and tried to tell him that the bus was headed the opposite direction, but he refused to believe them, and took the bus anyway.

Uncle Carlton also told me that ACL was a very fervent politician, who could make impassioned speeches on behalf of a candidate, and then change his mind and speak just as fervently on behalf of the opponent. Uncle Carlton recalled a time when his grandfather was debating someone, and asked his opponent, "Sir, do you agree with what Hosea 22 says?" Not wanting to disagree with a biblical text, the man said of course he did. ACL turned to the audience and said, "Do you see how ignorant my opponent is? There is no 22nd book of Hosea in the bible."

Family stories also suggest that ACL may have had ulterior motives in taking up doctoring. The profession allowed him to drive around the countryside in his horse and buggy visiting many lonely widows. On one occasion, he took his grandson Alec with him in the buggy to Shreveport, and asked Alec to drive the buggy home while he remained in Shreveport. Alec said that the horse stopped at the house of every widow on the route.

ACL also sold Hadacol, a patent medicine that was almost 100% alcohol, on his medical route. The inventor of Hadacol, Dudley (aka "Cousin") LeBlanc was one of the politicians ACL supported most strongly.

My grandmother Vallie Snead Lindsey did not like her father-in-law, ACL, blaming his lack of medical knowledge (as she thought) for the death of her daughter Edwina. My aunt Helen Blanche Lindsey has told me that her mother dreaded visits from ACL when he was an old man. He'd arrive at the house saying, "I want the coolest room in the house," and early in the morning, before anyone else had gotten up, would arise and sing, very loudly, Negro spirituals such as "Nobody Know the Trouble I'se Seen."

In Feb. 1987, Vallie Snead Lindsey's sister Grace Lindsey told me that she, too, had not liked "old Doctor Lindsey," who always seemed like a little banty rooster, proud and defiant, to her. By this point in her life, Aunt Grace's mind was not very clear, and in telling me this, I believe she had forgotten I was ACL's great-grandson.

I've been told that ACL died a virtual pauper, since he often performed medical services for those who could not afford to pay him. Family stories say that, even after his sons married, ACL expected them to assist their parents financially, and the sons would give part of their salaries to their father.

An Alexander Cobb was clerk of court for Fayette Co., AL, in 1846--see Newell, HISTORY OF FAYETTE CO., AL, p. 70 (cited in file of Joseph Anderson Pryor).