William Henry Lindsey Lindsey, known to friends and family as "Will", was born Nov. 15, 1876, in the Raybird and Chastain settlement, 10 miles north of Thomasville, Ga.
    He was one of the nine children of John Warren and Emiline Shirey Lindsey.  His father served four years in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, or as he termed it, "The War Between the States".
    When Will was nine years old, the family moved to Cypress Station in North Florida.  "We moved so often, the chickens would come in and cross their legs when the moving preparations begun," he said.
    In his early teens, the Lindsey family moved to Wewahitchka, on steamers from the wharf on the Chipola River.  The severe freeze in 1894-95 and 1896-97 ended citrus growing in that part of the state, and many of the young men became interested in catfishing and logging.  He and his older brother, John, decided to try their luck at fishing when Will was 20.
    They sawed cypress trees with a hand-held crosscut saw into thin slats to make catfish baskets, using bamboo for bands to hold the slats together.  Their boat was called a "bateau", and was man powered by paddling.
    They landed at Rico, on the Florida River below Bristol, a "turpentine farm", peopled by 200 Negroes and Whites, and a well known steamer landing.
    The two Lindsey boys sold their catch in Apalachicola, until they tired of fishing and turned to logging.
    During those years, from the arrival of the first steamboat, the "Fannie", in Columbus, Ga., more than 200 different steamers cruised the waters of the mighty Chattahoochee River.  After logging off the timber, and rafting the logs down river, the Lindsey boys would hop one of the steamers and ride back to the logging site.
    After leaving the logging business, Will Lindsey went to work for Ben Cook, owner of Mill Creek turpentine camp, where he ran the cooper shop to make barrels for the spirits and rosin.
    A Mr. Sarvis was "woods rider" or manager of the camp.  He had two daughters, Molsie and Fannie, and a son named George.  His wife and he had actually taken Fannie, daughter of Mrs. Sarvis' sister, in as their own when her parents died.
    Will Lindsey married Fannie March 4, 1900.  They had seven children.  Four boys and three girls.
    Wills next job was with Fryer and Spence at their "Number Two" turpentine camp, 12 miles north of the area known then as "Bear Station", but was later called Sumatra.  The young Lindseys bought the J.D Peddie property, located at Number Two, and Will farmed the place for several years, raising cattle and "working out" at such occupations as logging, rafting, and floating the logs down river.
    The Sarvis' had moved to Mississippi, and wrote that a place at McHenry, Mississippi needed a woods rider, so Will applied for and got the job.  He sold his farm and moved his family to Mississippi, but about three years later, they returned to Sumatra and bought another farm.  After two years there, "it got too crowded", he said, so, he sold it and bought undeveloped acreage out in the country.  There he built a log cabin, outbuildings and cleared enough land the first year for pasture and raising of hogs.
    Bad luck struck the second year.  All the family contracted chills and fever.  The doctor ordered them to move from the mosquito infested area.  So, Will repurchased the farm at Number Two, which he had sold before moving to Mississippi, and they lived there until the four oldest children were grown.  There was no school there, so he bought a home in Sumatra and moved there to live until the death of his wife, Fannie.
    At the time of his 100th birthday, Nov. 15, 1976, he and his third wife were living in a nursing home in Blountstown.
 

Children of William and Fannie Lindsey:

Melvin - Hubert,  Lewis,  D. Harold,  Lynett Wyatt,  Carol L. Revell,  Freddie,  John Gorden
Willie - Hugh,  Francis Gay
Howard - Ruth Hammond,  Hazel Langston,  Cleve,  George Pierce,  Lawrence Allen
Joe - Eddie Joe,  Phylis,  Jolene
Elma - John White
Mamie (Hawkins) - Faye,  Margie
Edna (Hord) - Troy,  Lindsey Joel,  Mary Margan