Richard Vliet Lindabury was born on October 13, 1850, on a farm near Peapack, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. His father, Jacob H. Lindabury, was of English descent while his mother, Mary Ann Vliet, was of Holland-Dutch parentage. His boyhood was spent in farm work.
Lindabury attended the district school. An apt pupil, he enlisted the interest of his teacher and through him of the local pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church with the result that the latter secured permission to teach the boy in preparation for Rutgers College and ultimately for the ministry. Thus some three years largely devoted to the evening study of Greek and Latin ensued. A serious illness which made the boy an invalid for two years prevented the consummation of these plans. In 1870, however, young Lindabury was offered the opportunity to take up the study of law in the office of Alvah A. Clark, of Somerville, New Jersey, a relative, and a former member of Congress. Supporting himself by teaching a local school he was able to be admitted to the bar in 1874.
In 1874 Lindabury opened an office in Bound Brook. In 1878 he moved to Elizabeth where he made his first and last effort to enter politics by seeking the post of city attorney, an effort which was unsuccessful. For several years Lindabury engaged in general practice. He was counsel for the Anti-Race-Track Gambling League and made speeches widely against gambling. Though a Democrat he opposed his party in this situation since he believed they had been corrupted by the gambling interests.
In 1892 he defended the Singer Manufacturing Company against the payment of a tax from which the company claimed it was immune under its charter. Losing the case in the lower court he retained Joseph H. Choate to aid him on appeal and won the case in the court of errors and appeals. The next year the state's effort to collect the tax was renewed and again, with Choate's aid, he won a decision. His next important case was his defense of the American Tobacco Company against an action brought by the state of New Jersey to dissolve it as an illegal combination in restraint of trade. Choate, as counsel for the tobacco company, retained Lindabury as associate counsel and allowed him to handle the case on appeal. He won a significant victory which firmly established his reputation and brought him all the business he could manage.
In 1896 Lindabury moved his office to Newark where he remained for the rest of his life. After two years alone he became senior partner of the firm of Lindabury, Depue & Faulks. His practice was tremendous in scope and lucrative in character. In 1905 he represented the Metropolitan and Prudential Life Insurance companies in the Armstrong investigation in New York. He headed the distinguished group of lawyers which defended the United States Steel Corporation against the dissolution suit brought against it by the federal government in 1911 and won a decisive victory in the Supreme Court's decision in 1920. In 1912 and 1913 he appeared for J. P. Morgan and other financial interests before the Pujo committee in Congress which was investigating the so-called "money trust. "
Lindabury could never be persuaded to enter politics although he was many times sought by the leaders of his party for public office. Nor would he accept judicial appointment though this was twice tendered him. He was, however, a member of the New Jersey Palisades Interstate Park Board and a trustee of Stevens Institute of Technology. He retained an interest in farming and lived on a six-hundred-acre farm at Bernardsville, which he called "Meadowbrook" and which he operated on a paying basis.
He died from apoplexy after a fall from his horse.
Lindabury had a distinguished career as a corporation lawyer. He had as clients such business interests as the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the International Harvester Company, the United States Rubber Company, Bethlehem Steel Company, American Sugar Refining Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and many others.
Quotes from others about the person
"No other American lawyer ever represented and counseled so large an aggregate of capital investment as Lindabury represented and counseled. "
On July 8, 1892, Lindabury was married to Lillian (Van Saun) Dinger, who had one daughter and by whom he had a son and a daughter.
