The founder of the Shelby county family of this name was Isaac Tindall, a native of Kentucky, born November 7, 1783, who came to Shelby county, Indiana, in 1831. He entered eighty acres of land in Washington township and followed farming after the crude methods known to the pioneers, but as he was industrious he made a good living and prospered. He married in his native state Amelia Messick, whose date of birth was March 16, 1793, and they reared eight children. Among them was Job D. Tindall, who was born in Scott county, Kentucky, June 17, 1820. Eventually, he purchased his father's Washington township homestead, and established thereon a tannery, which he conducted in the old-fashioned way, using oak bark to tan the hides he bought in the neighborhood. He was a thrifty man, and in time accumulated a respectable estate, which has since been enjoyed as an inheritance by his descendants. Desiring to lead a less strenuous life, he turned the old farm over to one of his sons and bought three hundred and twenty acres of land in what is now Shelby township, where he lived until 1890, and the moved to Waldron, where the rest of his days were spent in retirement, his death occurring October 2, 1895, after he had reached the ripe of age of eighty-one years. He married Susanna Warner, who was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, October 20, 1828. Her parents, George and Mary Magdelena (Lyda) Warner, who were originally Pennsylvanians, migrated first to Ohio and thence to Indiana, in 1830. To Job D. and Susanna Tindall fourteen children were born, of whom seven are living, and thus briefly mentioned: Alexander W. married Nancy, daughter of Sylvan and Susan Bassett, and have two children; Charles A., who is a prominent physician at Shelbyville, married Bertha Mickelsen, and has two sons; Jesse M., who is in the real estate and insurance business at Indianapolis, married Nora O. Kendall, and has two sons; Amelia M. was graduated at Oldenburg University and conducted a seamstress business for some years and at present is living in retirement at Shelbyville; Estella C. married William Lemasters, Sr., has six children, and resides on a farm in Shelby township ; Arizona married James M. Agnew, of Irvington, Indiana, and has eight children.
Urus E., who is number four in the foregoing list of children, was born at old Addison (now Shelby) township, Shelby county, Indiana, September 18, 1871. After the usual routine in the country schools, he spent two years at Danville, Indiana Central Normal College, and began teaching in his native county when twenty-one years old. His pedagogic experience lasted ten years, or until 1902, and was confined entirely to Shelby county. In 1897 he began the study of law, reading during the intervals of school in the office of Tindall & Tindall, and one year with Attorney Isaac Carter. He finished his preliminary preparation by a year's attendance at the Indianapolis Law School, and was admitted to the bar October 8, 1900. Subsequent to this he took a course in the Indiana Law School, from which he was graduated May 29, 1901, in a class of forty-two. During the winters of the two years following he taught school and continued his law studies at intervals in the office of Thomas B. Adams. In 1903 Mr. Tindall opened an office in rooms 1 and 2, over the Shelby National Bank, where he has since continued to practice. Being a hard worker, of steady habits, and strictly attentive to business, it would not be a great risk to predict for Mr. Tindall a most popular and prosperous career. His fraternal relations are with the Odd Fellows and Masons, his membership being in Lodge 197 of the former Waldron, and Lodge No. 28 of the latter at Shelbyville. His wife as well as himself, is a Rebekah, being members of Lodge No. 52 at Waldron.
June 7, 1893, Mr. Tindall married Laura Maud Means, daughter of John L. and Elizabeth Means, a well educated lady and former teacher of music, of Shelbyville. They have one son, Glen M., born June 21, 1894.
Chadwick's History of Shelby County, Indiana, by Edward H. Chadwick, B.A., assisted by well known local talent, B.F. Bowen & Co, Publishers: Indianapolis, IN, 1909, pages 527-528.
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