James Finn 1834-1924

FINN, WORT, CLARK, HORNBAKER, HUMPHREY, ELLER

Posted By: Nancy Peterson (email)
Date: 5/3/2004 at 08:47:05

James Finn was born in Dundee,Scotland on December 22,1834 and died at his home in Bonaparte,Iowa on May 28,1924 at the ripe old age of eighty-nine,five months and six days.

He and his mother came to America in 1850, landing at New York. He was as apprentice in a machine shop in Cincinnate and in St. Louis and was pleased to remember and to relate that Andrew Carnegie and James J. Hill were among his early acquaintances.

On February 28th,1859 he united in marriage with Sarah Caroline Wort,the ceremony being performed by Squire Jones at Vernon. To this union were born twelve children, three of whom died in infancy. A son, Arthur, preceded his father to the Great Beyond in 1905.

Mr.and Mrs. Finn celebrated their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary at their home in Bonaparte in Febuary.

The surviving children are: Mrs. Jennie Clark of Pella, Iowa; Mrs. Mary Hornbaker of Bonaparte; Mrs. Emma Humphrey and Mrs.Allie Eller of Bison, S. Dakota; R.W.Finn of Monroe,Iowa; E.P. Finn of Willits, S.Dakota and C.B. Finn of Mt.Pleasant,Iowa. There are also twenty grandchildren and eight great grandchildren,besides a number of distant relatives and a host of friends.

Most of his life was spent on the farm south of Bonaparte and he moved to the present home in Bonaparte when he retired from the farm about thirteen years ago. Early in life he united with the M.E. church and always remained a faithful member of the same

Bonaparte Record June 3,1924,page 4, Bonaparte, Iowa