Newton Gleaves Finley, son of James Washington and Margaret Jane (Campbell) Finley was but eleven years old when his family made the five-month trek by wagon train from Missouri to California in 1852. In 1870 he wrote a brief history of his family taken from a letter written by his Uncle John Pettus Finley, born about 1780 to 1785 in Montgomery County, Virginia, and is available in this database. For a full account of these Finleys see "John Finley of Montgomery/Wythe County, Virginia: Additional Children Identified," in this database. This account of his own life, in his own hand, was written when he was 74 years old in 1917. [Autobiography courtesy of Cynthia Finley Elliott, granddaughter of Newton Gleaves Finley. Photo of Newton Gleaves Finley courtesy of Dr. Alton Lovell Alderman, grandson of John Alexander Lovell who was on the same wagon train with the Finleys.]
