Home Page for Descendants of Thomas D. Finney

Thomas D. Finney was born 1801 in Buncombe County, North Carolina. His parents are unknown at this time, but his father was not born in America according to census data. Bucombe county was sandwiched between the east Tennnesse counties of Cocke, Jefferson and Sevier and the northwest tip of South Carolina, the Spartanburg area.

Thomas D. Finney and his wife Mary had the following children:

Miles Elbert Finney
Dr. Thomas Lee Finney
William Finney
Amariah E. Finney
Wesley Finney
Elbert Finney
Joseph Enos Finney
Wiley B. Finney

We know Thomas' wife Mary only by her first name. After the 1850 Jefferson County, Tennessee census she disappears.

Thomas apparently remarried after Mary's death, because there is a female "J. A. Finney" included on the 1860 census of Jefferson county, Tennessee. She was born 1825 in Tennessee.

Thomas was a laborer and farmer who never learned to read or write. He lived to be almost 80 years old.

Migration of Thomas D. Finney

While his birth is listed as Buncombe County, North Carolina--more than one census lists South Carolina as his birthplace. I believe his family did live in the Spartanburg area of South Carolina which is just south of Buncombe county.

The family moved just over the border to Cocke and Jefferson counties of Tennessee. From there, to Knoxville. Davidson County. By the early 1860s, theywere in Missouri --Moniteau, Barry and finally Miller county.

Many of Thomas' children and descendants moved down to the northern part of Arkansas--at first Franklin County and then into Logan where his son Miles stayed and is buried. A few stayed in Missouri and some ended-up in Oklahoma.

By 1910, many of his descendants were in the Clark and Pike counties of Arkansas. Some eventually moved north into Hot Spring County near Malvern.