Obituary: Mary Hawkins Cole Finley, 5 Mar 1898 - Smith County, TX Contributed by Vicki Betts 11 January 2003 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************************** TEXAS CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE, March 17, 1898, p. 20, c. 4 FINLEY.—The subject of this sketch, Mary Hawkins (Cole) Finley, daughter of Richard and Sarah Cole, and wife of Rev. R. S. Finley, was born in Lafayette County, Alabama, October 13, 1817, and departed this life in Tyler, Texas, March 5, 1898, being eighty years, four months and sixteen days old. At the age of fifteen she professed religion and joined the Methodist church, in which she lived till the last. She was greatly devoted to her Church, one of her last requests being that her dues to the missionary society and her subscription to the missionary papers should be kept up. At the age of twenty she married Rev. R. S. Finley, who is now eighty-two years old, and a superannuated member of the East Texas Conference. During the days of her husband's active ministry she was a great help to him. Having graduated at a good school in North Carolina before she was married, she was competent to teach, which she did when her husband's salary was meager. In one town in Alabama Bro. Finley got just enough for his preaching to pay their house rent, but at the end of the year she had money enough to buy a negro. By industry and economy they accumulated a little fortune, but it consisted largely in negroes and was swept away by the war. Of this she did not complain, but in the struggle for support stood bravely by her husband, who for a time took up the practice of medicine. Some time after the war he went again into the itinerant ministry. When age required him to superannuate he was in comparatively easy circumstances, for he had again accumulated a competency; but in an evil hour he invested his money in bank stock and lost it all. Through this severe trial in their old age Sister Finley passed with her usual heroism. She stood by her husband, who seemed physically weaker than she, like a ministering angel. When she was taken with her last illness she seemed more concerned about her husband than herself. perhaps the last intelligent act she performed was to put a bed spread over him. She came as near filling Solomon's description of a model woman (Prov. 31) as any the writer ever saw. She was the mother of eleven children, nine of whom she raised to be grown, eight are living still. She was justly proud of her large family, and their children arise up and call her blessed. On the 21st of last August the citizens of Tyler gave her and her husband a reception at Marvin Church, that being the sixtieth anniversary of their marriage. The affair was a credit to them and showed how highly they are appreciated where they have lived so long. A noble specimen of the noble old type of Southern ladies has been taken from us. Her end was peaceful. She went to heaven while her friends were singing, "How Firm a Foundation." In the language of Dr. McFerrin, she sent a message to my wife that is equally appropriate for us all—"you know where to find me." B. H. GREATHOUSE.