Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


MILTON LINDLEY, ESQ., 
 
is a native of North Carolina and was born in Guilford County in 1820. When he 
was twelve years of age his parents, David and Mary (Hadley) Lindley, removed to 
Morgan County, Indiana. The former was of English‑Scotch and the latter of 
English-Irish extraction. She was a descendant of the Hadleys, one of the old 
and prominent Quaker families of Hendricks County, Indiana. Milton Lindley lived 
with his parents until manhood and was given only a common-school education, yet
through much reading and study�which is even now his daily habit�he has acquired 
an excellent education. Although reared a farmer he did not follow that 
vocation, but on leaving the homestead started out on his business career as a 
harness and saddle maker at Monrovia, Indiana, which occupation he continued for
twelve years. In 1850 he engaged in general merchandising at the same place, and 
four years later, when his health became impaired by a too close application to 
business, he engaged in farming and afterward in general merchandising in 
Hendricks County, Indiana, remaining there twelve years. During this time he was 
sent East by a number of wealthy gentlemen to study the new National banking 
system. His investigations proving satisfactory, he assisted in organizing the 
First National Bank of Danville, Indiana, which is yet a stanch institution. In 
1866 he removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he resided until the latter 
part of 1875. In that year he came to Los Angeles, having previously spent two 
winters there for the benefit of his health. He purchased forty acres of land 
adjoining the western limits of the city, which he devoted to fruit culture, the 
varieties being so numerous that he could pluck ripe fruit of several kinds 
every day in the year. Selling his ranch in 1882 and retiring from business, he 
became a resident of the city of Los Angeles. Politically he is a Republican. In 
1879 he was elected treasurer of Los Angeles County, which position he held for 
three years, holding over one year on account of a constitutional change. In 
1884 he was elected a member of the county board of supervisors, and served as 
such during 1885 and 1886. Mr. Lindley was married in 1849, at Belleville, 
Hendricks County, Indiana, to Miss Mary A. Banta, daughter of Cornelius and 
Elizabeth (Eccles) Banta. She was born in Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana, 
but reared principally in Hendricks County. She is a member of the Christian 
Church. They are the parents of nine children, seven of whom are living: Walter, 
a physician of Los Angeles; Hervey, banker and dealer in real estate at the same 
place; Ida B., filling the chair of modern languages in the University of 
Southern California at Los Angeles; Arthur, a contractor of Claremont, 
California; William, a physician of Albion, Idaho; Albert, solicitor and 
collector for the Black Diamond Coal Company, of Los Angeles; and Bertha, still 
at home, and a graduate in both letters and music; of the University of Southern 
California, with the class of 1887. Mr. Lindley is now nearly seventy years of 
age, but retains all the genial social attributes for which he was noted during 
his younger days.  While a careful business man, he is also a generous one, and 
what he has given to assist worthy young men and religious, charitable and 
educational institutions would be considered a competence by almost any family. 
He has yet with him, much of the time, his mother, who is bright and intelligent 
and eighty-seven years of age. With a wife, who has been in every sense of the 
word a helpmate to him for the last forty years, with seven grown children 
around him, with several grandchildren looking up to him with love and 
veneration, he is passing the evening of a well-spent life in this sunny land of 
the Pacific Coast, where the orange the vine and the fig-tree flourish, and the 
mighty ocean and majestic mountains proclaim the glory of the Creator.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 546
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler