Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
J. J. Finney
J. J. Finney, a son of Paulinus and Hannah (Taylor) Finney, was born near Niagara Falls, N. Y., Oct. 3, 1829. His father was a native of Essex County, N. Y., born in 1797. His mother was a native of Burlington, Vt., and a lineal descendant of General Zachary Taylor. His parents were married in 1821, and in 1839 settled in Butler County, Ohio, where his father died Aug. 1 and his mother Aug. 17, 1849, of cholera. His father taught a school of thirty-five pupils near Middletown, five of whom were his own children.
At the death of his parents the family were left in limited circumstances, and the four youngest children were provided with homes, while the older ones went to learn trades. Our subject carried brick for masons until the November following his parents' death and then began learning the blacksmith's trade with Kline & Lockwood, serving an apprenticeship of three years. He received $3 a month and his board and washing the first year, $4 a month the second year, and $5 the third year. During the entire time he lost but nine days, three of which were occasioned by the death of a sister. In the fall of 1852 he opened a shop in West Milton, Ohio, which he carried on till 1859, when he worked as a journeyman in Eaton, Indianapolis, and Richmond, in the latter place for S. R. Lipencott.
Oct. 12, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Fifty-seventh Indiana Infantry, and was elected First Lieutenant. May 30, 1862, he was commissioned Captain and assigned to the command of Company D. He served with his regiment during the term of their enlistment, participating in the battles of Nashville, Pittsburg Landing or Shiloh, Corinth, the long and weary marches across Alabama, and back into Southern and Middle Tennessee, and thence to Kentucky in pursuit of Bragg. They took part in the closing scenes of the battle of Perryville, in the battles of Stone River and Chattanooga, and also all the battles incident to the Atlanta campaign. Feb. 4, 1865, he was mustered out on account of expiration of his term of service and was recommended by Governor Morton as Major and assigned to the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Indiana Infantry and served till September, 1865. Three of his brothers served through the entire war as Captains and all returned home uninjured.
After his return home he formed a partnership with D. B. Strattan and carried on a blacksmith shop till September, 1878, when a partnership was formed with J. J. Chase, under the firm name of Chase & Finney, and carried on a rag house four years. In 1869 he was appointed Assistant Assessor in the Revenue Department, and served till the office was abolished. In February, 1880, he was elected by the Upper and Lower House of Indiana to the office of Director of the State prison, South, at Jefferson, and Oct. 1, 1883, was elected Chief of Police of Richmond. In 1853 Mr. Finney joined the Odd Fellows fraternity at Eaton, Ohio, and in 1865 transferred his membership to Lodge No. 254, Richmond. He has represented the lodge and encampment in the Grand Lodge and Encampment of the State, and has held all the important offices of both lodge and encampment. He is also a member of the A. P. A., the Red Men, Knights of Pythias, and is now Quartermaster of Sol. Meredith's Post, No. 69, G. A. R. Politically he is a Republican.
His father was so much an Abolitionist that he would not support General Taylor, and used to say to his sons, "I may not live to see it, but you, my boys, will see, ere twenty years go over your heads, that there will be no Whig and Democratic parties, but in their stead a Union and Anti-Union party, and a great war between the North and South where rivers of blood will flow, and when that time comes I want you to be on the side of freedom, right and justice." Mr. Finney has been true to his father's injunction and takes an active part in all political matters. He was reared in the Methodist church, and though not a member of any church has a preference for that denomination.
He was married Dec. 26, 1855, to Sallie A. Long, of Eaton, Ohio. They have three daughters — Cora L., now Mrs. J. E. Jones; Lizzie M., now Mrs. Will H. Campbell, and Ida. The two eldest are graduates of the Richmond High School and were teachers in the city schools several years.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2