LINDLEY  HOUSE 

The Thomas Elwood Lindley House was built on land granted in 1812 to Jonathan Lindley when he left North Carolina to settle in Orange County.  Jonathan was the grandfather of Thomas Elwood Lindley, an influential Quaker. He served in the State Legislature at Indiana’s first Capitol in Corydon.  The property recorded in the Lindley Family unit was deeded to the Orange County Historical Society in 1974 by the great great-grandson, H Carl Thompson and Dorothy Farlow Thompson.

 The house is restored in part to reflect the period 1850-1869 when it was used as a farm house.  It was listed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places in 1985.  Included are a corner cupboard, washing machine, spinning wheel, baby crib and pump organ.  The front porch step features a large semi-circle millstone from an 1800 gristmill.

 DATING THE WOOD IN THE HOUSE

  Lindley House is located off US 150 on Willow Street to Paoli Peaks.  For some time now the exact date of the construction of the historic structure has been rather clouded or simply lost to time.  Here is our own History Detective Darrin’s analysis of the Lindley House.  Very exciting.

Dr. Darrin Rubino, a professor at Hanover College, preparing to date the historic Lindley House in Paoli, drills a pencil sized sample of wood, matches tree ring growth in the wood to historic weather patterns in the data base to determine when the log was “born” and when it “died” (was harvested) and is able to conclude when the structure was built.  He has dated 3 other structures in the Paoli area.  The oldest thus far is 1817; others have been between 1828 and 1848.

 “All said and done, I would say it was built in 1852 or late 1851.  The outer ring (wane or bark) if present, is almost certainly 1851.  It is not possible to tell if the 1851 ring was completely formed or not.  I can say, that the 1852 ring has not yet started to grow.  Therefore, the logs were harvested prior to April 1852 and sometime after June or July of 1851 (There is some growth in that year).  So the “addition” is not an addition; I believe some of you thought it was original.  What’s great about the project is we have dates from the basement, the L-addition, and the main house/structure.  I went up into the attic of the main structure and was able to date the sill (Wow was it hot up there!).  In the main house attic, there were several walk boards which I think were the original roof sheathing of the house.  The current roof looks like a replacement but I couldn’t find any wane or bark to date it.  The walk boards had a live edge and MANY nails and nail holes suggesting shingles were once nailed to them.  In all, we dated 1990 rings and created a chronology dating from 1562 to 1850.”

 LINDLEY TROUGH

 This 10 foot long livestock trough is an early piece of Orange County history from the William Lindley farm.  He came on wagon train with Jonathan Lindley.  Through dendrochronology, the scientific method of dating, based on analysis of tree rings, Hanover Professor Dr. Darrin Rubino determined this poplar tree began growing in 1522 and was harvested in 1850.  Today the wood in the trough is 494 years old.  This trough has remained on the Lindley farm, owned for decades by Rachel and Jim Bowen.  It was purchased from the Bowens by Saving Historic Orange County (SHOC) and is now being shared with Orange County Historical Society at the Thomas Elwood Lindley House.