John Berrien Lindsley was an American Presbyterian minister and educator in Nashville, Tennessee. Born in Princeton, New Jersey and educated at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, he married an heiress to the Carnton plantation and ministered to slaves and the poor. He was Professor of Medicine at the University of Nashville and co-founder of its Medical Department. He served as the Dean of the Medical Department from 1850 to 1855, and as the Chancellor of the University of Nashville from 1855 to its demise in 1873. During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he protected its campus buildings, and he was in charge of Confederate hospitals in Nashville. After the war, he was a superintendent of Nashville schools and a co-founder of the Montgomery Bell Academy.
Lindsley became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Smyrna, Tennessee in 1846. He returned to Nashville in 1847, where he was appointed by the Presbyterian Board of Domestic Missions to preach to African slaves and poor whites. He was also the pastor of Tulip Grove, a plantation owned by Andrew Jackson Donelson next to The Hermitage, another plantation owned by President Andrew Jackson near Nashville. Meanwhile, Lindsley had been a classmate and he was a good friend William Walker, who ruled Nicaragua between 1856 and 1857. He was Southern Presbyterian and believed in the mission of civilizing the world. His belief was shared and supported by his friend William Walker. Lindsley was a lecturer in the Theological Department of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee in 1848-1850. By 1850, he joined his father at the University of Nashville and co-founded the Medical Department alongside Dr. William K. Bowling and others. He was a professor of chemistry at the University of Nashville and served in that position until 1873. He served as the first Dean of the medical faculty until 1855, when he was elected as a chancellor of University of Nashville. During those years, he oversaw the merger of the Western Military Institute with the University of Nashville, and he hired Prussian-born architect Adolphus Heiman to design Lindsley Hall, the main building on campus, which was completed in 1853. Additionally, he served on the Tennessee Board of Education from 1856 to 1860. Meanwhile, Lindsley took trips with Gerard Troost to look for fossils in the Tennessee countryside, and considered becoming a geologist himself. During the American Civil War, Lindsley was responsible for protecting the University of Nashville from the Union Army. He turned the university buildings into a hospital for the Confederate States Army. He was also in charge of all Confederate hospitals in Nashville. Lindsley was appointed as superintendent of schools in Tennessee in 1866. A year later, in 1867, he established Montgomery Bell Academy in 1867. Three years later, in 1870, he was a co-founder of the Tennessee College of Pharmacy. Lindsley served as secretary of the Tennessee Board of Health from 1877 to 1897. Lindsley was a co-founder of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a member of the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Medicine, the American Chemical Society, the American Historical Association, the Medical Society of Tennessee, and the Tennessee Historical Society. Lindsley authored The Confederate Military Annals of Tennessee, published in 1886.
Lindsley died in 1897 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery. Two of his granddaughters, Mary and Pierce, were the first and second wives of Luke Lea, who served as the Senator from Tennessee from 1911 to 1917. The University of Nashville Medical Department is a precursor to the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, founded in 1875. As a result, Lindsley's portrait is on display on the Vanderbilt campus. It is also on display on the second floor of the Nashville Public Library.
