The Lindley post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Erwin Centre (1833) and Presho (1887), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 638 in 18402020 census: 1,813145 years
How historic is Lindley?
C
More historic than 35% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Lindley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lindley’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lindley is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lindley’s overall grade.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Lindley’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Lindley’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In 1789, Eleazer Lindsley, who was originally from Morristown, New Jersey, had been invited to participate in the Treaty of Canandaigua, in which he bought a plot of land. After serving in the New Jersey State Assembly, Lindsley along with 37 aquatencies left New Jersey to build a settlement in this newly purchased land. Originally, the town had been known as Lindsley or Lindleytown, but in later years the "s" was dropped and the town is now known as Lindley.
Passages that mention Lindley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people1911 · page 194Read the page →
Read the text
in 1817; in the town of Hornby, 1820; in the town of Howard, 1820, and in the town of Lindley, 1841. The Presbyterians established a church in the town, now city, of Corning in 1810; in the town of "Wheeler, the same year; in the town of Urbana, 1831 ; in the town of Hornellsville, 1832, and town of Erwin, 1835.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people1911 · page 106Read the page →
Read the text
came entitled to a member of assembly in the legislature of New York, although not entitled to it by population. Colonel Eleazar Lindsley, of the town of Painted Post, by whose aid a settlement had sprung up on the Tioga river (now in the town of Lindley) was elected and was the first member of assembly west of Seneca lake. General Israel Chapin was the member in 1792-3. Thomas Morris was the member of assembly for Ontario county in 1794-6.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of the settlement of Steuben County, N.Y.1853Read the page →
Read the text
" fifteen to twenty feet, often twenty-five feet, and sometimes more than thirty feet of ground, at a single jump." The last elk killed in the county was shot in the town of Lindley, about yorty years ago. As for the wolves, history despairs of doing them justice. They deserve a poet. How they howled, and howled, and howled ; how they snarled and snapped at the belated woodsman ; how they killed the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Lindley, 1833 to 1933
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Lindley post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Lindley rank for history?
Lindley is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Lindley?
19% of Lindley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1975.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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