Finley, Hon. Franz S.

FINLEY, TRIMBLE, JEFFREY

Posted By: Henry Co Volunteer (email)
Date: 5/22/2004 at 14:45:09

Harlan, Edgar Rubey. A Narrative History of the People of Iowa. Vol IV. Chicago: American Historical Society, 1931
p. 73

HON. FRANZ S. FINLEY, educator, traveler, lawyer and statesman, for many years has been one of the substantial citizens and prominent men of Iowa, a man of scholarship, a leader of the Mount Pleasant bar, an honest and able political representative and a civic worker of efficiency and usefulness. Mr. Finley is known very widely over the state, having formerly served four years as a member of the Iowa State Legislature, and has been interested in many important measures and enterprises helpful to the general public. He came to Mount Pleasant in the latter part of 1894, and this city has been his home ever since, and he is able to look backward over a busy interval of thirty-five years of worthy achievement. Since 1902 he has been a member of the Mount Pleasant Free Public Library board, a civic enterprise in which his interest has been deep and constant and in 1929 appreciation was shown for his devotion in his election to the presidency of the Library Association.

Franz S. Finley was born at Duncan Falls, Ohio, August 12, 1866, a son of Capt. H.S. and Anna (Trimble) Finley. Captain Finley was born at Duncan Falls, Ohio, February 6, 1826, and grew up a farmer. When war was declared between the states he enlisted, and was made captain of Company I, One Hundred and Sixtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served in the Union army until he was wounded in 1863, during a skirmish in the Shanandoah Valley of Virginia. His injuries were of so serious a nature as to necessitate his being invalided home. After his recovery he resumed his farming. The mother was born at Ruraldale, Ohio, and the parents were married in 1860. They had twelve children born to them, eight of whom are still living.

Mr. Finley attended the district schools and in 1885 received a teachers' certificate through a successful passing of the necessary examinations. For three years thereafter he taught school in the rural regions and then entered Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, worked his way through, and was graduated in 1893. In the meanwhile he traveled over the United States, Canada and European countries as a commercial salesman, in this way earning money to pay his expenses. After graduating from Muskingum College he had a year in the Ohio State University and in the latter part of 1894 came to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. The following year he was admitted to the bar of Iowa, and immediately thereafter entered upon a private practice. His grasp of the law, his broadened culture and his personal popularity brought him into prominence and in 1902 he was elected county attorney, which office he held for two years at that time and again from 1912 to 1914. At the close of each term he refused to allow his name to be used for reelection. In 1915 he was elected to represent Henry County in the Iowa State Legislature, and was reelected to succeed himself but refused further nomination. He is one of the leaders of the Republican party. The Iowa State Bar Association and the Henry County Bar Association both hold his membership. Since his youth he has been an earnest member of the Presbyterian Church.

As has been already mentioned, Mr. Finley is a man of culture and broad vision, and it was not long after he arrived at Mount Pleasant that he recognized the need for an adequate public library, but it was some years before he was able to see his hopes bear fruit. As member and later president of the present library he is rendering what he feels is his best service, and this library under his capable direction compares very favorably with those in cities many times larger than Mount Pleasant.

On June 20, 1900, Mr. Finley was married to Katherine Jeffrey, of Washington, Iowa, and they have one child, Jean, who was born at Mount Pleasant, April 17, 1901. She is a graduate of Vassar College, and is now a resident of New York City.