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.