Biography of Rev. William Finney, page 495. History of De Kalb County, 
Indiana, Inter-State Publishing Company, Chicago, 1885.
  
Rev. William Finney, pastor of the German Baptist church, Butler Township, 
was born in Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1847.  His parents died when he was a child, 
and he has no knowledge or remembrance of them.  His early life till fifteen 
years of age was spent with kind friends in Fort Wayne, and he obtained a 
good education in the public schools.  In 1863 he enlisted in Company D., 
One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Indiana Infantry, and was actively engaged till 
the close of the war.  He Participated in the Kenesaw Mountain, Resaca, 
Buzzard’s roost, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Pulaski, Columbia, Franklin, Nashville, 
Kingston, and others less noted.  He was discharged at Charlotte, N.C., in 
1865.  Returning to Fort Wayne, he attended school part of the next winter, 
and then went West, visiting Kansas, Colorado, Dakota, Wyoming and Utah; was 
engaged in the survey of the Union Pacific Railroad a portion of the time.  
In 1869 he returned to Indiana and followed agricultural pursuits near 
Huntertown till 1875, when he was ordained a minister in the German Baptist 
church, and has since devoted his time to the churches of Allen and De Kalb 
counties.  Mr. Finney was married July 4, 1869, to Almira E., daughter of 
Jeremiah and Sarah Bump.  They have seven children---Lawrence, Delbert, 
Francis M., Jeremiah C., Henry, Sarah and Mary (twins).

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com