Jacob Lindley
Jacob Lindley [1]
a Cumberland Presbyterian minister, was born June 13, 1774, in western Pennsylvania, and was the fifth in descent from Francis Lindley, one of the passengers in the Mayflower. Jacob's father erected a block-house between the Monongahela river and Wheeling, as a defence against prowling Indians, in the winter of 1774 and 1775; and it was long known as Fort Lindley. Young Jacob became a communicant about 1786. For a time he was a student at an academy near his home, and at the age of eighteen entered the institution afterwards known as Jefferson College, at Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1798 he entered Princeton College, from which he graduated in 1800. Having studied theology for a time, he was licensed to preach by the Washington Presbytery, and in 1803 removed to Beverly, Ohio. The first board of trustees of Ohio University selected him to organize and conduct that institution, for which purpose he went to Athens in 1808. For several years he had charge of the infant college, and was the prime mover in securing the erection of the college buildings, and in founding the Presbyterian Church in Athens. During a part of his twenty years' labor there he was the only Presbyterian minister, in that section of Ohio. About 1828 he was partially relieved by the appointment to the presidency of Reverend Dr. Wilson, of Chillicothe; although he remained about a year longer in the college as professor of moral philosophy and. mathematics. Subsequently he spent one year at Walnut Hills,' Cincinnati; then a year or two at the Flats of Grace creek; after which he accepted a call from the Upper Ten Mile congregation, within whose bounds was his birthplace. While here, in western Pennsylvania, he received a mandate from his presbytery forbidding ministerial intercourse with the Cumberland Presbyterians. Refusing obedience to the mandate, charges were brought against him, which he showed to be groundless, and then he demanded from his presbytery a letter of dismission. This was granted, and in this way his connection with the Presbyterian Church was severed. He became a Cumberland Presbyterian, but continued his pastoral relation with the Upper Ten Mile congregation for two or three years. Subsequently he took charge of a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation at Beverly (then Waterford), Ohio. In 1837 he removed to Alabama, still preaching and teaching as opportunity offered. From 1848 Dr. Lindley spent his winters in the South, and his summers in the North. He died at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, January 29, 1857. In 1846 he published a small volume, entitled Infant Philosophy. See Beard, Biographical Sketches, 2d series, page 45.
