"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chapman 
Publishing Company, 1903. p. 797.

JOHN J. FINN

     Immediately identified with the agricultural interests of Polk county, Mr.
Finn is carrying on general farming with signal success at McCoy. An active,
enterprising man, he has won his way in the world by his own efforts, and has
made a good record as an industrious, intelligent citizen, and as a business man
of ability. A son of the late John Finn, he was born June 27, 1852, at Canton,
Mass.
     John Finn, the father of John J., was born in County Limerick, Ireland,
about 1788, and spent the earlier part of his life in the Emerald Isle. Crossing
the Atlantic in 1847, he located in Massachusetts, where he was successfully
employed in agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in ' the town
of Stoughton. Mass., in 1864. He married Mrs. Annie (Dunn) Fitzpatrick, who was
born in Queens county, Ireland, in 1816, and is now living in Massachusetts, a
venerable woman of eighty-seven years. Of the five sons and four daughters born
of their marriage, John J., the second child, and his brother William, are the
only survivors.
     Leaving, the district school at the age of eleven years, John J. Finn
worked for a year in a woolen mill, remaining, meanwhile with his widowed
mother. The following year he left home, and from that time until twenty years
old wandered around through New England, working at whatever he found to do.
Enlisting in 1872 in the Fourth United States Cavalry, he served in Texas and
the Indian Territory until. disabled by injuries received by being thrown from a
horse, when, in 1876, he was honorably discharged from the service. After making
a short visit in Massachusetts, Mr. Finn came to Polk county, Ore., locating on
Mill creek, where he worked for wages for a number, of years. Being prudent and
thrifty, he saved his money, bought a farm of one hundred and sixty acres on
Mill creek, sixty acres of it being timber land, where he remained until 1882.
He then took passage from Portland on the vessel "Ivy," and went around the cape
to Queenstown, Ireland. Returning via Boston, Mass., he visited his mother at
Stoughton, reaching Oregon again in the spring of 1883.
     In 1884 he married Mrs. Julia A. (Rider) Davis, and moved onto her farm of
one hundred and forty-eight acres near McCoy. Mrs. Finn's father, Dr. James
Rider, moved in 1876 from Minnesota to Oregon, locating in Polk county, where he
resided until his death on May 30th, 1900.
     By her first marriage, Mrs. Finn has three children, namely : Capt. Milton
F. Davis, U. S. A., a graduate of West Point, who served with the first cavalry
in the Cuban campaign, afterwards was assistant adjutant general on the staff of
Brigadier General Bell in the Philippine Islands, and now stationed at Fort
Leavenworth; Myrtle, living at home ; and Richard, who enlisted as a private in
the Fourth United States Infantry, rising from the ranks to a first lieutenancy
in charge of a company of Filipino scouts. Mr. and Mrs. Finn have one child, J.
Waldo Finn.
     Mr. Finn is independent in politics, voting for the best men and measures
regardless of party restrictions, and has served as road supervisor. Fraternally
he is a member of Amity Lodge No. 20, A. F. & A. M., Oregon Consistory No. 1,
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rites, and McCoy Lodge, I. O. O. F.

     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in October 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.