Forest Grove Cemetery Forest Grove Cemetery

“The Professor” George H. Green, Douglass School’s fourth and longest tenured principal (1886-1936) was born a slave before 1856, and rose to become one of the state’s most prominent Negro educators.

As a child, he was sold twice. Mr. Green told the story of being 8 when a man came to his master wanting to buy his mother. The men haggled over the value of the mother. So, the master finally gave in and threw George in to seal the deal. The second time he was sold was at the age of 12. He was sold for $400.00. His new master had compassion for him and sent him to tutors along with his own children, and thus he began his formal education.

Professor Green graduated from the segregated Lincoln Institute (now known as Lincoln University) in Jefferson City, Missouri. He began his teaching career in 1875 in Linn County, Missouri. He taught three years in Cooper County and then taught school in Fulton, Missouri from 1879-1880. He went on to teach in Pleasant Hill from 1880-1885. He came to Lexington in 1886, and became principal of the Douglass School, where he served for fifty years. After he retired from being principal, he continued another ten or eleven years as a teacher. Professor Green taught school without missing a day, or ever having been tardy 56 of the 71 years of his career! The record nearly came to an end in 1918 when he was ill for a few days during the school year with influenza. However, it so happened there was a “flu” epidemic in Lexington at that time and the schools had so many teacher and pupil absentees that they had been dismissed until the epidemic subsided. His school attendance record is featured in Robert Ripley’s “Believe it or Not.”

The professor was very active in civic affairs, as well as in his church. He was a member of Dixon Lodge No. 11 AF & AM. Members of the lodge say that he was undoubtedly the oldest member of the lodge in Missouri, if not in the United States.

The Professor was widowed twice, and never had any children. At the age of 95 (January 1952) he left Lexington to live at the Masonic Home in Hannibal, Missouri where he died that same year. He is buried at historic Forest Grove Cemetary 

Professor Green was inducted into the Lexington, Missouri Hall of Fame.

William Lindsay (June 12, 1891 – September 1, 1914), nicknamed the "Kansas Cyclone" and "Lightning", was a Negro leagues pitcher for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League.

Lindsay started his career with the Kansas City, Kansas based Kansas City Giants at the age of 18. His death certificate states that he played ball starting at the age of 14, in 1905. He played for the Kansas City Giants for two years, then moved to the Leland Giants in 1910 where he remained until a court battle split the Leland Giants in 1910.

Lindsay moved to the Chicago American Giants, where he stayed until 1914. During the California Winter Leagues, one writer claimed Lindsay and catcher Bill Pettus were one of the best batteries "ever seen in this strip of sunshine."

Lindsay died in Chicago in 1914 at the age of 23 after he spent 9 days in Provident Hospital with what appears to have been problems with his urinary tract. The coroner's notes appear to say Uremia, which contributed to a Uremic Coma and Sepsis.

His body was taken to Charles Jackson's Chapel, where services were held, and then was returned to his birthplace, Lexington, Missouri. His pall bearers were fellow ball players Pete Booker, Bill Monroe, Bruce Petway, Frank Wickware, Jesse Barber, and Lee Wade.

Lindsay was the brother of fellow Negro leaguer Robert "Frog" Lindsay. His parents, listed on his death certificate, were Peter Lindsay and Mona Mady Lindsay. Another relative, Walter Lindsay, is listed as an informant on his death certificate. Bill Lindsay is also listed as single.

The day he died Rube Foster said of Lindsay, "I have lost a great ball player, a fine gentleman and a noble friend

His grave is still unidentified today.  

ALICE FREEMAN HANCOCK was born to Jerry and Lucinda Gordon Freeman on May 13, 1891, in Lexington, Missouri. She studied piano growing up, and in 1913 did a concert tour in Canada.

On June 2, 1917, Alice married William Austin Hancock (member of another musical family). The couple had a child in 1919. That daughter turned 100 years old in 2019!

Alice died on June 25, 1922, after sustaining injuries falling down some steps while she was pregnant.