Dear Reader,
“A Heaven of a Place,” or the story of James Finnie and John Finnie, all began
with an attic find. In about 1993, give
or take a year or two, I joined my mother and father in the substantial attic of my
grandfather, Thomas James Finnie, who had passed away in 1980. My grandmother Finnie, Virginia VanZandt
Vail-Finnie, had left everything lying among the rafters of their Sulphur,
Louisiana, or more accurately Maplewood, Louisiana, attic where most of it had rested
since 1955 when they had transported the contents of Edzzard Gibbs Finnie’s Gainesville,
Texas home (after his death) southeast for storage. Yet another chink in a line that was the
passage of the Finnie artifacts from generation to generation. The passage of artifacts really began with John Finnie, who
was the son of James Finnie and born in 1784.
John was the second oldest James Finnie male child and remained in Union
County, Kentucky, unlike many of his siblings, after his father's death to farm on land that adjoined his father. He was the logical choice to inherit,
and preserve, the Finnie artifacts. Next
came Thomas James Finnie, son of John and born in 1827. He was the last child of John Finnie, the
only surviving Finnie son, and the eventual custodian of his aging parents and so,
the artifacts were again preserved.
Thomas James Finnie had many potential offspring (to pass the Finnie
historical documents to) as the challenges of life led him to Randolph County, Missouri and
then to Gainesville, Texas. One male
progenitor would retain the Finnie farm in Texas after his father’s death along
with the growing collection of artifacts; the youngest son, Edzzard Gibbs
Finnie, born in 1876. The Finnie
artifacts remained in the Thomas James Finnie house since Edzzard Gibbs Finnie
simply took over his father’s farm. Edzzard,
or Gip as he was known, lived in this home until 1955 when he passed away. The growing Finnie collection had spent 82
years in one place at the Finnie home in Gainesville, Texas and consisted of items that dated from 1785, covering 170
years.
At the time we stepped
into the Thomas James Finnie attic, we had no idea of the history (and the fun)
that awaited us among the spider webs, bugs, and blazing heat. A precursory analysis identified that we may
have bitten off much more than we could chew.
Though my parents soon became exhausted and probably felt we would never
finish, I on the other hand was in a proverbial heaven. It was here in this southwest Louisiana sauna
that I fell in love with old stuff. Much
to my dismay, a large amount of the artifacts was classified as “junk” by my mom
and dad (and probably most other sane people) and thrown out. I worried constantly that something important,
something that had been saved over generations, was being disrespectfully trashed. After all, generations had preserved all of this and who were we to decide to throw it
away? I was concerned over old clothes and
shoes and magazines and toys…pretty much everything. I began to find papers, such as newspapers
that had been saved at the time of historical events and other occasions, both
related and unrelated to the family. Among
all the treasures that only I seemed to be able to see, I found several boxes
full of letters and papers which I refused to send to the trash forming below.
In retrospect, I understand my parents’ resistance to keep it all – we lived
nearly 800 miles away in Florida. We had
limited space at our home and of course a limited ability to transport items
they deemed impracticable, unnecessary, and of little value.
The boxes of papers I found and kept included
letters, receipts, and miscellaneous records of Finnie families of the
past. There were even books that nearly
all included detailed inscriptions with loads of interesting genealogical
data. Some of these Finnies I knew about
and others were new to me. In one old envelope
I removed a folded paper; yellowed with age. Once unfolded it revealed a family tree showing the descendants of one man,
a James Finnie. I poured over this tree
to see how I fit in and after finding my common link, felt the pressure to
learn more.
For over 20 years, I researched,
wrote a little, did more research, and wrote a little more. After laying it all out, I really felt it
made quite a story. There was even a
time when I thought there was very little left to do. One missing piece of the story kept coming
back to me though; there were no birth, death, and marriage dates for James
Finnie, his wives, and most of his 16 children. Of course I had the James Finnie family tree,
for which I was eternally thankful, but I selfishly wanted more.
My mother came to visit me in
Pensacola, Florida in 2012 on her way to Louisiana for a trip to see her mother and
brother. My Uncle Tommy (another Thomas
James Finnie and my mom's brother) had just built a new house and had moved from his older home in
Carlyss, Louisiana. During the move he found
an old box with a few old Finnie books and immediately thought of me! He saved them and when my mom arrived, he
placed them in her care knowing they would make it back to me for safekeeping.
I can’t tell you how excited I
was to see a portion of the Finnie artifacts that had obviously been carved off
of the rest sometime in the past (before my attic excursion circa 1993!). My
uncle had no recollection of how they had gotten into an obscure corner of his
attic. A large tome, decimated by time
and barely able to be opened, was interesting but on first look offered little
to what I already knew about the Finnies.
Guthrie’s Grammar, as it was known, dated from 1790 and was inscribed by
John Finnie in 1810. I took a quick look
through the pages and found only some contemporary lined papers that had been chewed upon over the years by silverfish.
Surprisingly, upon these pages were written the names of James Finnie,
his wife, and all his children. It had
their birth dates (day and month) but the years had all been eaten away by the
prehistoric paper-eating bugs (stinking silverfish)! I was demoralized,
thinking that all the dates I had ever wanted were mostly gone. That night in bed, I thought about this
damaged paper and how the information must have been transferred from an older
source as all of those dates would have been impossible to remember over
several generations (since they were on what was obviously newer 20th century paper). When I woke I decided
to take a better look at the contents of the large old book into which the
newer lined papers were placed. On the backs of folded geographical maps, I discovered every date I wanted related to the James Finnie
family! In addition to this find the book was also accompanied by an 18th century leather wrap that held many folded and damaged papers and documents spanning 150 years. Some of these had been written by James Finnie in the 18th
century (Appendix 2 and Appendix 3).
This project is a tribute to the
first Thomas James Finnie, my great-great grandfather, the original Finnie
researcher, and the author of the family tree I found in the attic. Grandfather Tom has brought me as close as I
will ever come to know many of the men and women that were responsible for my
existence. Their memory can now live on
in the hearts and souls of those who turn the pages and discover the Finnie
history.
Daniel Drost
Finnie/Finney researcher
ddrost@uwf.edu
ddrost@uwf.edu
Thomas James Finnie, circa 1852, CDV copy of an earlier daguerreotype of ambrotype
Thomas James Finnie, circa 1860, ambrotype
Thomas James Finnie, circa 1868, CDV
Thomas James Finnie, circa 1890, cabinet card