Lindsay

Lindsay is on U.S. Highway 82 six miles west of Gainesville in north central Cooke County. When it was established as a switching station on the Gainesville, Henrietta and Western Railway in 1887, it was named for Judge J. M. Lindsay. It was a German-Catholic colony promoted by land speculators Anton and August Flusche. In 1891 the brothers signed a series of contracts with J. M. Lindsay, W. W. Howeth, and others, granting them 9,300 acres on the railroad. In the spring of 1891 the townsite was surveyed, and the remaining property was divided into farms. Colonists began arriving in October 1891, and in January 1892 eleven heads of households were present for the first colony meeting. The people of Lindsay celebrate March 25, 1892, as the town's birthday, because on this date the first Mass was celebrated in the William Flusche home by Father Hugo Bardenhewer. The apparent success of this new colony caused Judge Lindsay to donate nearly eight acres to the Diocese of Dallas as a building site for a church, a school, and a cemetery. Rev. Joseph Blum of Muenster selected the highest point near the western end of the townsite, and a twenty-by-fifty-foot frame church was built there for $800. The money was raised by Judge Lindsay, citizens of Gainesville, and the Flusche brothers.

In 1898 the Reverend Heuchmer, pastor of Gainesville and Lindsay, stated that Lindsay was too small to remain a separate parish and should be incorporated into the Gainesville parish. Wanting to remain independent, Anton Flusche, J. D. Boesken, and Henry Sandmann talked to Bishop Edward Joseph Dunne and secured a promise that Lindsay would remain a separate parish; on September 1, 1899, the Benedictine Fathers of Subiaco, Arkansas, were given the responsibility of religious duties for St. Peter's Parish. In 1903 a new brick church was built to serve the parishioners. This church was destroyed by a tornado on May 31, 1917. A new church, still extant in the 1980s, was dedicated on October 12, 1919. Residents of Lindsay, with the help of Father Bonaventure, established a parochial school, which opened in October 1893 with sixty pupils. It was run by the Sisters of Divine Providence until 1932, when the school system became public. In 1969 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line discontinued service through Lindsay, and U.S. Highway 82 became its main traffic artery. Lindsay was incorporated in December 1959, and in April 1960 its residents voted to legalize the sale of alcoholic beverages within the city limits. Restaurants and package stores, built on both sides of U.S. Highway 82, constitute a large part of the business in Lindsay. In 1982 the town had 581 residents, most of whom were descendants of the early German-Catholic settlers. The Lindsay economy includes farming, dairying, oil production, and liquor and food sales. Some residents commute to work in Gainesville. Lindsay has two local festivals, Octoberfest and the Lindsay Homecoming Picnic in July. In 1990 the town's population was 610. The population grew to 788 in 2000.