Remembering who we are…….109
Jonathan Lindley, Alamo Defender, part 3
•May 13, 2026•
by Janet Roney
I’ve been sharing the story of the only Alamo defender who was born in Illinois, Jonathan L. Lindley. He was born in February 1814, in Hill’s fort, south of what is now Greenville, Madison County, Illinois. He was just seven months old when his aunt, Lydia Little Pursley, rode out from that fort to save Ranger Tom Higgins’ life after the fort’s ranger patrol had been attacked by Indians. (See “Remembering...” #55)
Jonathan Lindley was twelve years old when his parents traveled on up the Kaskaskia with Moultrie County’s first group of settlers in 1826, led by Jonathan’s grandfather, John S. Whitley. He was nineteen in 1833 when his father, Samuel Washington Lindley, took his family to the Vehlein Colony in Texas (bordering, but not in the Austin colony, as I wrote last week). By 1835, Samuel had moved his family to Montgomery County, Texas.