Lindley, Walter, 1852-

Dr. Walter Lindley (1852-1922) was born in Monrovia, Ind., Jan. 13, 1852, the son of Milton Lindley, merchant, treasurer and commissioner of Los Angeles County, and Mary E. Lindley (born Mary E. Banta). As a boy he attended school and worked on a farm. He graduated from Keen's School of Anatomy in Philadelphia in 1872, followed by Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1875. During his final year of college he was appointed by the Brooklyn Board of Health as ambulance surgeon and was resident physician for the Eastern District Hospital in Williamsburg. In 1875 he moved to Los Angeles and married Miss Lou C. Puett with whom he had two children, Flora and Myra. In 1881 Mrs. Lindley died. From 1882 to 1893 he was married to Lilla Leighton but was widowed a second time when she died at the age of 34. In 1876 he married his third wife, the widow of Mr. Robert Hardie, Mrs. Florence Hardie, who was the sister of two of his colleagues, Dr. John R. Haynes and Dr. Francis L. Haynes. The couple had two children, Dorothy and Francis Haynes. He helped organize the Young Men's Republican Club of Los Angeles and was its first president. He established the Free Dispensary of the Medical College on Requena Street which treated the underprivileged at no charge. As the County Health Officer in 1878 he helped develop free vaccination for public school children and a system of registering births and deaths. As Public Health Officer in 1879 he issued the first public health warning of the outbreak of scarlet fever. In 1885 he helped found the College of Medicine at the University of Southern California, serving as dean and on the faculty of obstetrics and gynecology over the years. In 1886 with colleagues J.P. Widney and J.B. Kurtz, he founded the first medical journal in Los Angeles, the Southern California practitioner, which was published for 36 years, serving as editor, publisher and frequent contributor. In 1886 he opened a practice on 315 West Six Street, known as Dr. Lindley's Private Hospital for over 20 years. In 1887, Dr. Lindley and Dr. Francis Haynes established "The Pacific," the first private hospital in Southern California which gradually developed into the California Hospital. Dr. Lindley managed it for 20 years. In 1920 it was sold to the Lutheran Hospital Society and is still in operation as the California Hospital Medical Center. He helped found the Los Angeles Orphan's Home, serving as its first president in 1882 and acting as physician for eight years. He advocated for family placement of orphan children rather than placement in institutional orphanages. He believed that California needed a reform school for delinquent children. In 1890 the Reform School opened, which was later renamed the Whittier State School. He was appointed superintendent from 1890 to 1894, remaining a member of the Board of Trustees and serving as president from 1899 to 1905. The school was later renamed the Fred C. Nelles School of Boys and is no longer in operation. In 1901 he helped open a tuberculosis sanitarium in Idyllwild, Calif. which failed financially and was turned into the Idyllwild Mountain Resort Company which suffered from a devastating fire in April 1905. In 1906 he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Los Angeles on the Republican ticket. On Jan. 20, 1922 he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in his home.

From the description of Dr. Walter Lindley scrapbooks, 1869-1943 (bulk 1875-1921). (Claremont Colleges Library). WorldCat record id: 670011170

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