The Lindsay House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back in the 1860s, a man named Tom Lindsay settled himself into Mason County. Not in town, mind you.

North of Mason, out where the land was open and the work was hard, Tom made his living as a farmer and a cattle raiser. That's the kind of man he was. Patient.

Rooted. The sort who builds something slow and means for it to last. And sure enough, he did just that.

Around 1899, Tom and his wife Fredericka, born a Durst, decided it was time to come into town. And when they built their house in Mason, they didn't cut corners. Not one.

The stonework on that house is something to look at even now. Fine, careful masonry, with segmental arches over the windows and corner quoins that tell you somebody took real pride in what they were putting up. That house was meant to endure.

Tom Lindsay died in 1917, and Fredericka didn't go anywhere. She stayed right there in the house they had built together, in the town they had chosen together, and she lived in it until she died in 1928. The Lindsays came to Mason County when it was raw country, raised cattle north of town, then came into Mason and left something solid behind them, stone by careful stone, still standing.

What the marker says

Tom Lindsay settled in Mason County during the 1860s and was a farmer and cattle raiser north of the town of Mason. About 1899 he and his wife, Fredericka (Durst), moved into town and built this house. It features fine stonework, particularly in the segmental arches over the windows and in the corner quoins. Following her husband's death in 1917, Fredericka Lindsay continued to live here until she died in 1928. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1984