Member Biography

Biography

Darwin Abel Finney (W20) Crawford and Erie Counties 1856-1857 (W27) Crawford and Erie Counties 1858-1861

Early Life: 

Darwin Abel Finney, born August 11, 1814, Shrewsbury, Rutland County, Vermont; son of Levi and Orpha P. Clark Finney; public school education; Rutland Military Academy, Rutland, Vermont; clerk, law office, Kingsbury, New York, 1834-1835; Middlebury College, 1836-1839, before moving with his parents to Meadville, Pennsylvania; Allegheny College, B.A, 1840; married, Marion Johns; publisher, Whig Statesman and People’s Free Press, 1841-1848; studied law, admitted, bar, 1842; attorney, law practice, Meadville; Meadville burgess, 1848; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1855-1861; director, Meadville Railroad Company, 1857; founder, Meadville Cemetery; elected, Republican, United States House of Representatives, 1867-1868; died, August 25, 1868 (aged 54), Bright’s disease, Brussels, Arrondissement Brussel-Hoofdstad, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium, interment, Greendale Cemetery, Meadville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania.

Early Career:

Director, Meadville Railroad Company, 1857; founder, Meadville Cemetery. 

Pennsylvania Politics:

Meadville burgess, 1848. 

Elected, Whig, Pennsylvania State Senate, 20th district, Crawford and Erie Counties, 1856-1857; elected, Speaker, Pennsylvania State Senate, May 21, 1857.

Elected, Whig, Pennsylvania State Senate, 27th district, Crawford and Erie Counties, 1858-1861.

Names of any service after Senate:

Elected, Republican, United States House of Representatives, Fortieth Congress, 1867-1868.  

Legacy: 

There is a cenotaph for him, Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Cited:

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members F". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project Wilkes University.

A Manual for the Government of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1860) Zeigler, J., page 289. 

Darwin Abel Finney (1814-1868) - Find a Grave Memorial