Lilah Denton Lindsey
Lilah Denton Lindsey, an American philanthropist, civic leader, women's community organizer, temperance worker, and teacher. She was the first Creek woman to earn a college degree, and served as president of the Indian Territory Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
Early years and education
Lilah Denton was born near Blue Creek, Coweta District, Creek Nation, Indian Territory. Her father, John Denton, was a Cherokee and her mother, Susan, was a Creek. Both were born in Alabama of Scotch ancestry, and as children came during the early 1830s to the Creek Nation of Indian Territory. Susan was of a missionary family, and becoming a physician, she practiced in the Creek Nation in the early days. Lindsey was the youngest in a family of six children, four of whom died in infancy, and one at the age of 12 years.Lindsey acquired her first education in the old Admission School of the Creek Nation. Her mother had been educated in the same school, and Lindsey sought every opportunity to study. At that time, Muscogee girls were not allowed to enter schools until the age of 12, and one of her early disappointments was when she was taken at the age of eight to the mission school but was not allowed to enter. Her first teacher at Tullahassee Mission was Eliza J. Baldwin, and who more than any other one person was instrumental in directing the education of Lindsey and encouraging her interest in the broad field of philanthropy which she made her life work.
At the age of 16, Lindsey's parents both died, and through the influence of friends she went to Hillsboro, Ohio, having previously attended a seminary at Fulton, Missouri. At Hillsboro, she entered the Highland Institute and was graduated with honors in the class of 1883. She was the first Creek Indian girl to graduate from that institution. While there, she was urged to take a medical course in order that she might practice among her own people, since she possessed, partly as an inheritance from her mother, a natural ability for such work, and she became an excellent nurse. In her childhood, Lindsey spoke only the Muscogee language, and while in school, devoted herself assiduously to the learning of the English language. The spring before her graduation from Hillsboro, she was appointed by the Home Mission Board of schools at New York City to teach at the Wealaka Mission in Oklahoma, to which point the old Tullahassee Mission had been transferred.
Teacher
Her natural ability and her love for teaching soon gave her a high standing as an able educator in the old Indian Territory. She taught for a time at the Presbyterian Mission in Wealaka, also at the Coweta Mission, and for about three years at Tulsa. Altogether, she spent about 10 years in the mission schools.In 1884, at the Wealaka Mission Miss Denton was married to Col. Lee W. Lindsey (born 1845, Ohio. He served in an Ohio regiment of cavalry during the American Civil War, and after peace was restored, went south and lived for several years in Alabama, and superintended the quarrying of stone for the building of the first machine shops at Birmingham. He became a building contractor, and during the 1870s, moved to the Creek Nation of Indian Territory. Colonel Lindsey completed the walls and enclosure of the old council house of the Creek Nation at Okmulgee. They moved to Tulsa, establishing a home there in 1886, and for many years, was one of the central figures in Northeastern Oklahoma.
After her marriage and at the solicitation of her friends she was induced to accept the position of teacher in the national schools of Oklahoma, and the State Board of Education, having full confidence in her ability, did not require an examination, which was otherwise obligatory upon all teachers.
Organizer
In the 28 years that Lindsey has made her home in Tulsa, her interests varied. She was a leader in many woman's organizations in Tulsa. She did individual charity work on a large scale for years. She visited the sick, personally secured donations for the needy, and practically did the work of a humane officer. She organized the Humane society. Her interest in charitable work attracted the attention of state officials. Oklahoma Governor Charles N. Haskell appointed her as the Oklahoma delegate to the International Tuberculosis Conference held at Washington, and she was sent to numerous state charity associations. She secured the donation of a tract of land for the Florence Crittenton Home for Fallen Girls at Tulsa, but failing health prevented her from completing its construction.For years, Lindsey was one of the active factors in the Women's Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions of the Southwest. She was an ardent church worker and at one time was the oldest in member of the First Presbyterian church in Tulsa. She became a member of the WCTU and organized a union in her city. From that time until statehood, she was president of the Indian Territory WCTU and has later served as vice-president of the Oklahoma organization, president of the Tulsa County and the local union, and for one year edited the official organ of the Indian Territory WCTU. At the World's Convention of the WCTU held in Boston, Lindsey was introduced to the assembly of women from all nations as a 'real native of America.' Lindsey organized both the Maccabees and the Woman's Relief Corps at Tulsa. She was a member of the executive board of the latter organization and one year audited the books in Atlantic City. She attended nine national Grand Army of the Republic assemblies.
Lindsey established Tulsa's first woman's club, because she organized the Tulsa WCTU, the National WCTU being the first woman's club ever organized in America. She gave to Tulsa and Oklahoma their first police matron. Realizing what the office might be made to accomplish with girls taken into court, Lindsey found a woman broad enough and womanly enough with ability to fill the position. When she met with the council to propose that such an office be created, she had the preliminaries so well planned that the office was created and the woman she desired appointed and commissioned to begin work the following morning. She also served as vice-president of the Women's National Rivers and Harbors Congress.
One of the things in which she was intimately interested was the preservation of old Native American landmarks, especially the Creek Capitol Building at Okmulgee, which she hoped to see made into a museum for the preservation of Creek relics. Her husband built the stone wall about this building and set out the trees around it, and she taught a term of school in one of its rooms.