Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/111

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FINLEY


FINLEY


In 1829 he resigned tliis position to return to the itinerant ministry, and in 1845-49 was chaplain of the Ohio penitentiarj-. The last years of his life were spent in missionary worlc in Ohio. His published writings include : Jlistory of the Wyan- dot Jlission (1840); iTemorials of Prison Life (1850) ; Autobiot/ntphi/ (1853); Sketches of Western Methodism (1854) ; and Personal Ileininiscences Il- lustrative of Indian Life (1857). He died in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, Sept. 6, 1856.

FINLEY, John Huston, educator, was born at Grand Ridge, 111., Oct. 19, 1863; son of James G. and Margaret (McCombs) Finley, grandson of Ebenezer Finley of Fayette county. Pa., and a descendant of the Rev. James Finley, brother of the Rev. Samuel Finley, president of the College of New Jersey. He spent liis boyhood on an Illinois farm, and wa.s grad- uated at Knox col- lege, A. B ,1887, A.M., 1890. He then entered . , , upon post-graduate ™ studies at Johns Hop- kin.s university in the dejiartment of history y and economics, study- / ing under Drs. H. B. Adams, R. T. Ely, "Woodrow Wilson and J. F. Jameson. After nearly two years at John.s Hopkins he became secretary of the State Charities aid association of New York. He fomided and edited for three years the State Charities Bceord and in 1891 became the editor of the Christian Beview. He was called to the chair of sociology in Leland Stanford Jr. university, and at about the same time was offered the presidency of Knox college and accepted the latter, succeeding Dr. Bateman in 1892. He resigned in June, 1899, to associate himself with the Harjiers and Mc- Clures in a joint literary enterprise. He received the degree of LL.lJ^from Knox college in 1899. With Professor Richard T. Ely he wrote Taxation ■ in American States and C'/f/cs (1889). He became president of the College of the City of New York in 1903.

FINLEY, Martha, author, was born in Chilli- cothe, Ohio, April 36, 1838; daughter of Dr. James Brown and Maria Theresa (Brown) Finley; granddaughter of Major Samuel and Mary (Brown) Finley and of James and Eleanor (But- ler) Brown ; and a descendant of John and Martlia (Berkley) Finley, James and Mary (McClelland) Brown, and Thomas and Eleanor (Parker) Butler. Her maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Butler,


great-gi'andson of the Duke of Ormond, came over to America before the Revolution and set- tled in Pennsylvania. Martha was taken to Cir- cleville, Ohio, in 1839, and to South Bend, Ind., in 1836, acquiring her education chiefly in the latter place. In 1851-53 she taught school in In- diana, removing in the latter year to Philadel- phia, then to Phcenixville, Pa., where she taught for a time, and later devoting her entire atten- tion to literary work, adopting as a pen name "Martha Farquharson. " She removed to Elk- ton, Md., in 1876. Her published works include: the Elsie Dinsmore series (23 vols., 1868-98) ; Ca- sella, or, Tlie Children of the Valleys (1869) ; An Old- Fashioned Boy (1871) ; Wanted, a Pedigree (1872) ; Our Fred : or. Seminary Life at Thurston (1874) ; The Mildred Series (7 vols., 1878-86) ; Si(jnini/ the Contract (1879) ; The Thorn in the Nest (1886) ; The Tntijedy of Wild Pirer VaUey (1S9Z) ; Tmddletewit, A Fairy Tale ( 1898) ; besides a long list of Sunday- school books.

FINLEY, Robert, educator, was born in Prince- ton, N.J. , in 1773; son of James Finley, a Scotch- man. He was graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1787 ; taught school, 1787-93 ; was tutor at his alma mater, 1793-95, and in the latter year was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. He was pastor at Baskingridge, N.J., 179.5-1817. He became deeply interested in the condition of the free negroes, and was largely instrumental in the organization of the American colonization society. He was a trustee of the College of New Jersey, 1807-17, and received from that in.stitution the degree of S.T.D. in 1817. He was. elected president of Franklin college, Athens, Ga., in July, 1817, and died there Oct. 3, 1817.

FINLEY, Samuel, educator, was born in Count}' Armagh, Ireland, in 1715, of Scotch Pres- byterian stoqk. He acquired a liberal education in his native country, and with his parents and six brothers, John, James, Michael, William, and probably Robert and Manassah, removed to the United States, arriving in Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 38, 1734, where in 1740 he entered the Pres- byterian ministry. He was licensed to preach on August 5 of that year and oi-dained by the pres- bytery of New Brunswick, Oct. 13, 1742. He was sent to Milford, Conn., the following year and was given the privilege of preaching elsewhere. In response to an invitation from the second soci- ety in New Haven he preached in that city, but on the ground that the society had not been formally organized he was arrested for violating the law of the colony forbidding itinerants to ])reach in a parish without the consent of the regular pastor. He was indicted by the grand jury and after a trial was declared guilty of vagrancy and was sentenced to be expelled from the colony. In 1744 he established and became