William Sharp Lindsay, M. D.—The family of which Dr. Lindsay is a member has given a number of men to the profession, men who have possessed the peculiar mental traits and talents requisite for a successful professional career and who have, therefore, become eminent each in his chosen line of endeavor. Dr. Lindsay's father and his father's uncle both devoted the active years of their lives to the science of medicine and it is not strange, therefore, that Dr. Lindsay selected therapeutics as the science to which his life should be devoted, nor that his son should make the same choice as he has done.

Dr. William Sharp Lindsay was born in Mechanicstown, Carroll county, Ohio, Aug. 28, 1852. His parents were Dr. Thomas and Mrs. Agnes (Sharp) Lindsay, the former of whom was a native of Ohio, where he was born Aug. 12, 1827, and the latter a native of Pennsylvania, where she was born in 1833. Dr. Thomas Lindsay studied medicine in Mechanicstown, Ohio, in the office of his uncle, Dr. John Lindsay, and later entered the Cleveland Medical College, which is now the medical department of the Western Reserve University, and graduated there in 1854. In 1857 he came to Kansas and took up a claim in Anderson county. That year the town of Garnett was laid out near his claim and in that town he began his practice which continued successfully there for a period of over forty years, or until his death in 1901. He was a charter member of the Kansas State Medical Society. He was member of the Kansas territorial legislative assembly from Jan. 2, 1860, to Jan. 16, 1860. During the Civil war he was assistant surgeon and much of the time acting surgeon of the Twelfth Kansas regiment, and was once captured, but after being held a prisoner for some time, he was finally released. His wife, Agnes (Sharp) Lindsay, was educated at a female seminary at Washington, Pa. She died in 1856, when but twenty-three years old, and left two sons—William S. and David P. The latter, a prominent lawyer of McPherson, is the county attorney of McPherson county. Dr. Thomas Lindsay subsequently married Martha Smith, who died in 1873, survived by three children: Samuel Watson, a druggist at McPherson, Kan.; Miss Sade, of McPherson, Kan.; and Mrs. Elizabeth Calvert, of Washington, D. C.

Dr. William S. Lindsay's mother died when he was but three and a half years old and he was placed in the care of his paternal grandparents, Rev. David Lindsay and wife, of Jefferson county, Iowa. In 1865, at the close of the Civil war, when a lad of thirteen years, he came to the home of his father at Garnett, Kan., and there continued his literary education. He began the study of medicine with his father and supplemented that study by a course at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, Iowa, where he graduated in 1874. He returned to Garnett and practiced medicine with his father five years; then went to Topeka as assistant superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane. After six years' service in that position he resigned and entered upon the practice of medicine in Topeka, where he has continued since that time, devoting his attention for the most part to the treatment of nervous diseases. He is the only nerve specialist in Topeka and, therefore, has a very large practice. In 1888 he took a course in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School, and also took another course in the same school in 1901. Dr. Lindsay has been a contributor to various medical journals and has read a number of papers before conventions of the medical fraternity, which have indicated his deep professional knowledge of the nerve diseases of which he has made a special study. His professional interest is further indicated by his membership in different medical fraternities as follows: The Shawnee County Medical Society; the Golden Belt Medical Society; the Southeast Kansas Medical Society; the Kansas State Medical Society; the American Medical Association, and the Medical Association of the Southwest. He has been president of the Shawnee County Medical Society and secretary of the Kansas State Medical Society. With his own private means Dr. Lindsay has built and is in charge of two cottages on the grounds of Christ Hospital, in which to treat nervous diseases. These cottages are known as "Christ's Hospital Cottages for Nervous Diseases." For several years he was dean of the Kansas Medical College and he now fills the chair of nervous diseases in that institution. Aside from his professional interests and duties Dr. Lindsay is the owner of a fine stock farm in Coffey county, known as "Meadow Spring Farm," embracing 640 acres, where he is interested in the breeding of fine registered Shorthorn cattle and Percheron horses.

On May 22, 1883, he was united in marriage with Miss Helen Elie Smith, daughter of Merril Smith, of Leavenworth, who graduated in the science of medicine, but devoted his attention to other pursuits. Four children have been born to Dr. and Mrs. Lindsay: Merrill Kirk, born May 20, 1884; Helen, born March 10, 1890; Lois, born Dec. 29, 1891; and Agnes, born Oct. 14, 1895. The eldest son, Merrill Kirk, was educated in the University of Kansas and Washburn College, and completed his professional training at the College of Physicians of New York, in which school he graduated. He is now associated with his father in the practice of medicine. The eldest daughter, Miss Helen, is now completing her education in the Illinois State University at Champaign, Ill. She is a graduate of the Topeka High School and spent two years at Washburn College. The two younger daughters are in the Topeka High School. Dr. Lindsay is a trustee of Washburn College and is a member and director of the Topeka Commercial Club. Politically he is a Republican and his religious views are expressed by membership in the United Presbyterian church, of which he is also an elder.