Ken Lindsay & Associates
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Famous Lindsay Family Members
Vachel was my 3rd cousin, twice removed. Vachel became my hero when I was in the 8th grade and his verse fueled my desire to become a writer. Curiosity as to a possible relationship led to my interest in genealogy. These efforts have extended six decades. In hindsight, perhaps there was a deep embedded desire to know my own self. Folks, I have come to one conclusion, What we are and what we become comes from the past. It is all in our genes. Vachel Lindsay - "the Prophet of God" Nicholas Vachel8 Lindsay (Vachel T.7, Nicholas6, Vachel5, Anthony Jr.4, Anthony Sr.3, Samuel2, Robert1), son of Vachel Thomas Lindsay and Esther Catharine Frazee, was born10 November 1879 in Springfield, Sangamon Co., Illinois and died there 5 December 1931. Nicholas Vachel Lindsay lies buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. Vachel grew up in a family closely affiliated with the religious movement known as the Disciples of Christ, Vachel Lindsay and his sister, Olive, attended Hiram College, a Disciples institution in Hiram, Ohio, from 1897 to 1900 and 1897 to 1901, respectively. Vachel's parents expected him to become a doctor, but instead Vachel was drawn to art and poetry. Thus, he left Hiram after three years to attend the Art Institute of Chicago. Later, Vachel studied art in New York City. From art, he turned to poetry, which was his true calling. Vachel Lindsay received his first recognition in 1913, when Poetry, a Magazine of Verse published his poem "General William Booth Enters into Heaven." This poem was about the founder of the Salvation Army and reflected Vachel's concern with social questions. Racial harmony was another of Lindsay’s concerns, and his poem on that subject, "The Congo," remains probably his most well known poem. Much of Vachel's short life was spent walking across the country, performing and distributing copies of his poetry (as in "Rhymes to be traded for bread") in exchange for bed and board. His poems were dramatic, and he performed them almost as drama, rather than as mere recitations. Nicholas Vachel Lindsay married Elizabeth Connor, daughter of Franklin Connor and Clarabel Sims, 19 May 1925 in Spokane, _______ Co., Washington. At the time, Vachel was 45 and Clarabel, 23. With their children, Susan Doniphan Lindsay, born 28 May 1926, and Nicholas Cave Lindsay, born 16 September 1927, they settled into the Lindsay family home in Springfield, Illinois in 1929 Never financially stable, Vachel Lindsay experienced a decline in his creativity during the 1920s, when he believed that people were more interested in his dramatic performances, rather than the themes his poetry actually conveyed. Although he received a D. Litt. from Hiram College in 1930—a degree he always longed for—he remained depressed and committed suicide 5 December 1931 by drinking poison. His place in the American canon has faded somewhat through the years, although there is presently a resurgence of interest in the social themes of his poetry and in his interest and prescience about the use and popularity of motion pictures. The VACHEL LINDSAY ASSOCIATION in Springfield, Illinois maintains the Lindsay home and periodically republishes Lindsay’s works as well as new material about him. You will get a better feeling about Vachel by reading the following letter written by Joy Lindsay Blair to Eudora Lindsay South two weeks after the poet's death. It follows verbatim as appearing in From the Lindsay Scrapbook: COUSIN VACHEL - Eudora Lindsay South, Joy Anne Blair, Lafayette, Indiana ã 1978 pp. 33, 41, 96-99. Dear Eudora, Mary, Ethelind, and Polk, I told Elizabeth I would help her acknowledge some of her telegrams and I brought yours home with me. So now I write to thank you for it. Ben and I met Olive in Chicago and the three of us went on to Springfield together. Olive is still there but Ben had to come back as soon as possible so I left with him at midnight the day after the funeral. The Women of Springfield erected a large gold cross in memory of Mama. It stands on the marble baptistry in front of our church (First Christian Church, Springfield, Illinois). I was much affected by their giving it at the time as Mama had been gone nine years and this was given not by people of our church but by people of all churches all over town. At the funeral the had the casket immediately in front of this gold cross and nothing was on the casket except one wreath which was sent by "The Young Poets of the Middle West." If you have a copy of the rotogravure section of the New York Times last Sunday it shows this wreath. The flowers were all banked on the two sides of the pulpit, leaving the center very plain. Mary Coleman Morrison and her husband helped arrange a beautiful service. There were no singing - only violins concealed behind the banks of flowers played very familiar hymns such as Hark! The Ten Thousand Harps and Voices which Vachel used as a tune in The Congo, The minister rose and without making any announcement as to what or where he read The Building of Springfield, then without pause I Saw a New Heaven and a New Earth and the verses following in Revelation, then still without pause or change of voice he read The Leaden Eye and then he quoted, "But I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly." Then Vachel's Shield of Faith and "I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith,….". When read in this way one could not but be impressed how much of Vachel's writing was similar in thought to the Bible and it was very impressive. After more violin music he preached his sermon in which he called Vachel a "Prophet of God" all the way through. If I could always be as I was in that church I would always feel only a glow of triumph; when I concentrate on him and his escape from his hard problems here I am happy - so happy about it. Trouble is that my thoughts wander to Joy Blair and then I'm sunk. You know I have seen a lot of Vachel in the last few years. As a letter which came to-day said, "You attitude has been half sister and half mother." He would come here and pour out a lot of things that he kept locked up from everyone else; and never such a visit as the last one. He gave a recital here November 23. It was held in Severance Hall, the lovely new hall built for the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. They put in extra chairs until 2,000 were seated and still five hundred or more were turned away, not able to get in. Vachel showed as much energy as ever - but I really think that in giving those recitals he would use in one night the energy he should have used over a whole month. He held the audience spellbound but when we went to get him afterwards he was white and deemed almost too weak to stand. For several years now he has hated to give recitals but has simply lashed himself into doing it because it seemed to be the only way he could support his family and he didn't want to be called a quitter. He stayed with us all week and we had such a dear visit. He always had such a fund of funny stories about people he had met. In New York he had been entertained by Princess Kropotkin and Countess Tolstoi, daughter of the Great Tolstoi, had met H. G. Wells and had much to tell on them. He went out to Hiram two days and read in chapel and several student gatherings. We took him out to Hiram and brought him back. He had Thanksgiving dinner with us. We put him on the midnight train to Springfield on Saturday night - and I think that it was less than a week later that he was dead! He died the following Friday night. On Monday (preceding) he gave his annual recital in Springfield and the clippings of it were most complimentary. My friend Lucy Williams, though, said that when Vachel came out on the platform she was shocked how white and thin he looked. She had not seen him for a month, as he had been East, and she saw much change in him. She said the recital was the best he had ever given. His last poem of his recital was The Lame Boy and the Fairy ending "Here come the ships of love, taking us home." The people of Springfield certainly have been lovely. So many flowers came that some of the friends decided it would be better to get up a purse to help defray funeral expenses, etc. In one day they had $1,400 dollars. They called it the Lindsay Testimonial Fund and the Lincoln Committee is in charge of it. I don't know what Elizabeth will do. She, of course, was a teacher and, last year, substituted for five weeks or more in the high school, also this year, so she will probably find some opening for teaching. Perhaps you heard the Chicago News Radio Station at 7 P.M. the Monday of the funeral. They gave a memorial program. Harriet Monroe, editor of Poetry Magazine, came down to the funeral and was at the house two days. As you know Vachel's first great encouragement came through her and he was always very fond of her. (She and Susan Wilcox, his beloved high school teacher who was first to recognize his genius, sat in the pew with the family at the services.)… There were telegrams from all the famous people you could think of - Sinclair Lewis, H. L. Mencken, Percy Mackays - flowers from Edna St. Vincent Millay - Lewis Untermeyer, Adrian Voisin, sculptor, University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins University, Poetry Society of America, Hiram College, Evangeline Booth, head of the Salvation Army. I can't remember them all. I loved the one from Ronald Hayes, the negro opera singer, "An understanding heart bears itself close to your own in profound sympathy." The gist of the telegrams was very similar - that there was a loss to the nation but that the person loved Vachel the man and felt the personal loss of a loved one. Vachel loved an unusually large number of people and I believe an unusually large amount of people loved him….. Joy Hiram College, in Hiram, Ohio, has a vast collection of Vachel's art and poetry which are listed on their Web site: http://library.hiram.edu or go to most large public libraries and pick up a copy of some of his published works such as:
Sources of Documentation:
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There
have been many members of this particular branch of the Lindsay family who gained a
great amount of fame. One of the more famous, and most loved, became a noted and
talented poet and artist. His name was Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, most commonly
called, Vachel. (Pictured on the left.)