Hamilton County IN Archives Bible Records.....David Finley Family Bible & Family History Copyright Date 1925 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Lynn Beatty klbeatty@npgcable.com January 8, 2007, 7:35 pm Almira Finley & her son Charles Finley, Malta Tp, Morgan Co, O Aug 27, 1925 They say that James Finley born 1817 walked out here from Penna in by Claysville, Pa & his father, David Finley rode horseback, they coming together & David bought the farm above here where Mrs Phillips now lives. James gave his old bible published in Phila by C. Alexander & Col 1834 both covers gone & the two leaves of record severed & torn across half way down, but record distinguishable to his daughter in law Almira & I am copying the record. Marriages James Finley & Mary Pennel were married Dec 21, 1837 David Moore & Jane Finley were married Nov 3, 1859 Isaac Finley & Mary Marinthia Purdy were married May 31, 1865 Joseph Finley & Sarah Louisa Raney were married June 1, 1865 David J. Smith & Mary E. Finley were married July 15, 1869 Thomas A. Finley & Almira Coler were married Jany 1st, 1874. Births James Finley was born June 11, 1817 Mary Finley was born Sept 26, 1819 Their children were: 1. Jane Finley was born Oct 27, 1838 2. Isaac Finley was born Mch 5, 1840 3. Joseph Finley was born Sept 14, 1843 4. Thomas Alexander Finley was born Apr 15, 1845 5. Mary Eleanor Finley was born Sept 18, 1850 Deaths Mary Finley died Dec 30, 1875 Elizabeth Gregg. No 1561 Shelby St, Indianapolis, Indiana, Christmas, Dec 25, 1925 Gregg is of medium size & spare. She is active & not at all feeble for one in her 86th year. Mrs Gregg said she was born Elizabeth Finley on Mch 22, 1840 fourteen months younger than her brother John Finley on her father's farm at Waterford, Westnd Co, Pa near Ligonier, Pa & 20 miles from Johnstown, Pa. She said there was so much talk of going to Kansas, that her parents with their family went to Pittsburgh in May 1858 & went down the Ohio, up the Mississippi & up the Missouri Rivers to Leavenworth Kansas where they landed & after experiencing a very severe storm there, they concluded to return, leaving two weeks after arrival by boat. Stopping several places on the way to look at land both in Mo & Evansville, Ind & finally stopped at Point Pleasant, Mason Co, VA (now WVA). Her brother, Thomas at this time was 4 yrs old. They located in Mason Co opposite Gallipolis, O & when the Civil War came on, her mother becoming alarmed about the rebels insisted on coming over to Ohio, which they did, locating in Gallia Co where her father died in the spring about 2 or 3 yrs after the close of the war say in 1868 aged 65 yrs & is buried in Gallipolis, O in the lot of her brother, John, but she says there is no marker. She said there was a fort at Ligonier & her grandfather Finley, whose name she doesn't remember, but thinks it was probably Samuel & her grandfather with another man were out at a hut attending to the farm & one morning they drew lots to decide as was their custom who should go after the horses & who should get breakfast & while he was doing so, the horses came tearing up to the hut snorting & he anticipating the Indians had killed his companion grabbed a bridle & putting it on one of the horses, Jumped on bare back & fled at top speed & on crossing the creek at daybreak, was fired on by the Indians laying in wait there by numerous arrows. Coming to a woman with a child on the road, he told her to get on behind, him or the Indians would kill them. She handed him the child & got on & he fled with such terrific speed that she was so frightened & said that she would as leave be killed by the Indians as that way & slid off the horse & looking back he saw her scalped by the Indians but he escaped to the fort with the child which was raised in the fort & grew up. She says her father told her this. Thomas T. Gregg, her son says his great grandfather Finley served in the Revolutionary War in a short campaign under Mad Anthony Wayne against the Five Nations in Western New York, because of the depredations of the Indians who were offered $10 per head for the scalps of the whites. He received one or two thousand acres of land in Westmoreland Co, Pa for his services, where he located & his home was not far from the farm of his son Thomas in Waterford, on the road toward Lauglintown, where he built a big stone house. His son, Samuel got this farm & the stone house (Look at Greensburgh, Pa for deeds to or from him & his will) Samuel sold this farm to Francis Smith who I met Sept 5?, 1897 in Ligonier Pa, he being then 90 yrs old. He tore down the old stone house, which Mrs Gregg remembers being in, & built a brick house on the same foundation. Mrs Gregg remembers Francis Smith & says she went to school with his son Matthew. Her Uncle Sam then went to Jefferson Co, Pa where he engaged in the pine timber business which he rafted down the rivers. He was back on a visit to his brother Thomas at Waterford, when my informant Mrs Gregg was a little girl several years before they went to Kansas. He went back to Jefferson Co, Pa & died shortly thereafter. His daughter, Mary Jane, a very beautiful girl, died there about the same time aged about twenty, unmarried of consumption. Her brother, ie Mary Jane's bro, Alex also died of consumption unmarried. There was another brother, Cameron who she thinks was married. Then there was Susan who married a Hunter, an undertaker, now dead & Mrs Gregg has several letters from her, dated July 13, 1904 to Jany 11, 1909 all written from 902 Huey St, McKeesport, Pa. In her letter of July 13, 1904, she says her father died when she was a child & she never knew her father's relatives. Says that two weeks ago, she was in the Ligonier Valley & saw her cousin Barbara Blair who was well & a "very sweet looking old lady". Mrs Gregg says Barbara's mother was Isabella Finley, a sister of her father Thomas Finley. She married a McCurdy & among her children were this Barbara who married a Blair & William McCurdy who had a daughter who had a daughter, both of whom Mrs Hunter met. Mrs hunter says her sister Sadie, who Mrs Gregg says was the youngest of the family, was making her home with her, she being a widow, but had one daughter married, living in Indiana, Pa. Says she had lived in Mckeesport 40 yrs. Says she can't tell anything about her Uncle James Finley family, but next time she sees Cousin Barbara, will ask her, who she says will be 80 yrs old Sept next, born then Sept 1824. Says she has no children, but her husband has one son married. Says Barbara Blair has a married daughter living in Monongahela, 12 miles from here. In her letter of Oct 6, 1904, says her sister Sadie's daughter has a son 11 yrs old. A letter dated Jany 11, 1909 speaks of having been out in the Ligonier Valley last summer to visit her cousin Barbara who she says is now 85 yrs old. Says her cousin Barbara said their grandfather Finley was in the Revolutionary War. Evidently her cousin Barbara could not give the name of their grandfather Finley. Mrs Gregg said there was a Thomas McDowell who lived on his farm with a big brick house adjoining their farm at Waterford who was a first cousin of her father, his mother being a sister of her grandfather Finley & she thought her name was Martha. He had been a school teacher in his young days & was an invalid for years from consumption, but ran a brick yard or two from his sick bed & became wealthy & when the farm of my informant's father was sold on a security debt that he had gone on for a professed or feigned preacher from Phila Thomas McDowell bought it. After he died, his wife, Jane, married a Wilson who moved in the brick house with his five children & her one child by Thomas McDowell, Mary Jane by name, about 10 or 12 yrs younger than my informant, was driven out & went to Fairfield, some six miles away where she married & lived. I am starting a genealogical table on page 390 from what she tells me. Mrs Gregg & Thomas tell me that her grandfather Finley was driving a supply wagon for Waynes army when a big Indian with painted face broke out of the brush on the road as he came along the road & he told the Indian there were armed soldiers ahead & behind & giving him a flask of whisky from his supply train, told him to make all haste through the brush & get away or he would be killed. Some years after this, Finley was captured by the Indians & they all decided to burn him at the stake, but took him to their chief for his approval. When the chief saw him, he recognized him as the man who gave him the whisky & saved his life & he said "No, this is a good man, we no burn him", so they let him go. Samuel McCurdy died near Brazil, Ind abt 12 yrs ago & left a widow, Eva, who went to the soldiers home at Lafayette, Ind & died there two yrs later. They had no issue. William McCurdy lived at Brazil, Ind unmarried. Robert McCurdy also brother of Samuel & William moved to near Brazil, Ind perhaps 4 miles out & owned a farm. His wife, Bell Ernhart survived him (he dying 20 yrs or more ago) & had five children. Gail, a boy, living in Brazil with his mother. Another son married & moved to Florida A daughter married & live in Brazil, Ind A daughter married & live in Brazil, Ind A daughter married & live in Brazil, Ind Another son. Mrs G. says that her Aunt Jane Finley "one of the best women that ever lived", was buried at the Presbyterian g.y. about 4 miles from Waterford toward New Florence, Pa where there was a Seceder Church right close by. Mrs Gregg knew Rev Joseph Scroggs who preached at Ligonier, Pa for 57 yrs or more & went to school with his daughter, Jemima Scroggs, who was a little younger than her & would sometimes come home with her from school for dinner. Jemima had an older sister, Julia. Thomas says to take the (north) Illinois car if marked Fairview, get off at Crown Hill which is the East entrance of the cem where they [best guess] complete records of burials. Thomas says that his grandfather, Geo Gregg was the only son in the family & had four sisters, one, Harriet, married a Taylor of near Eaton, another married a Gable. Their father died when they were young & their mother living in Penna raised them. Thinks they came from WVA. Thomas says his father told him that his, A.W.'s grandfather was the first J.P. in Pa west of the Allegheny Mts. Geo was born in 1800. Thomas says Woodruff Place, an incorporated town is inside the city with a stone wall around it. Thomas said there was one Genl Gregg in the Civil War from Penna on the Union side & one a Genl Gregg on the confederate side who met while in the service & on comparing notes, found they were cousins & he said that his grandfather, George Gregg was a first cousin to the fathers of each. Mrs Gregg said that her husband's mother nee Euphemia Minor when 10 to 12 yrs old went several miles through the woods with her father when he went in the War of 1812 & bade him goodbye in the woods & he was killed in the service a very short time thereafter. Additional Comments: Extracted from Josiah V. Thompson Journals File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/hamilto/bibles/davidfin11gbb.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 11.6 Kb