Jonathan Palmer Finley

JONATHAN PALMER FINLEY, the IHl distinguished subject of this sketch, liter. in fly ally gave his lite for the cause of education, the tax upon his strength in the promotion of Brookfield College, which he founded, proving fatal. The life of this eminently good man is a sermon that should be read by all men for their instruction and profit. He was born at Hayesville, Ohio, September 9, 1822, and at this place lie attended school for several years; he then became a student at Ashland Academy, proving an apt scholar for his years. Later, he returned to his native place and entered Vermillion Institute, from which he was graduated with distinction in the Class of '48. Long before this he had been strongly impelled by the inward monitor to consecrate his life to humanity; and in obedience to this call, he went to Princeton, entered the theological seminary there, and w.as graduated in May, 1851.

The inauguration of our subject's devoted, iinsellish life work took place at Big Creek, Ralls County, Mo., where he founded, in the fall of 1851, Van Rensselaer Academy, and was its good genius for five years. The next six years, from 1856 to 1862, were devoted to mission work, after which the synod of Missouri, in appreciation of his genius for teaching and his executive force, made him President of Westminster College, at Fulton, which position he filled for two years to the great benefit of that institution. The Presbyterian Church at Palmyra, Marion County, Mo., at this juncture made such an insistent call for his services that he did not feel justified in refusing to heed it, and for two years he ministered to the flock of that fold. Subsequent to this, November 18, 1866, he organized the Presbyterian Cliurch of Brookfield, and shortly after that of Laclede.

Through the efforts of our subject the erection of the Brookfield Presbyterian house of worship was begun in 1869, and pressed forward to completion. Soon after coming to Brookfield, he opened an academy in what was then known as Keenan's Hall, continuing it untilthe destruction of the building by fire in February, 1878. Although he could not at once reopen the school, his interest in education did not diminish, for he continued to serve on the Public School Board, to which he had been chosen before, and lie otherwise did what he could to make popular the great cause. Finally, by aid of personal friends and citizens generally, he erected a building upon his own premises, and Brookfield Academy was reopened September 13, 1880, and from this enterprise resulted the successful founding of Brookfield College. The present large and substantial building was erected in 1888, and the fall term

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRArHICAL RECORD.

of that 3'ear opened with more than one hundred students, a number of them preparing for the ministry. When the academy was merged into the college Mr. Finley resigned the pastoral charge of the church and gave his undivided time to the school, with the sad ending named above. He gave all his work and all his strength, for a fever set in, the result of overwork, and after a brief illness of six days he died, January 25, 1889, universally mourned.

ON AARON H. CONROW was born June 19; 1824, near Cincinnati, Ohio. He spent part of his boyhood days at or near Pekiu, Ill., and from that place, with his parents, moved to Missouri, and settled in Ray County. Here, by dint of his own energy, he obtained a good education, teaching school part of the time in order to get means to complete the same. In this he was very successful. He then those the law as a profession, and by rigid economy and sedulous application, became an eminent lawyer.

On the 17th of May, 1848, Mr. Conrow married Miss Mary Ann Quesenberry, a daughter of David H. and Lucinda Quesenberry, of Richmond, Mo. From this union resulted the following children: David A., Benjamin, William.S. and Mamie. He was appointed by the Governor Judge of the Probate Court established in Ray County. From January, 1857, to January, 1861, he was Circuit Attorney of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Missouri, an office that had previously been filled by such eminent lawyers as Hamilton R. (lambie, Abiel Leonard, Charles French, Robert W. Wells, Amos Rees, Thomas C. Burch, Peter H. Burnett, George W. Dunn, and others, but by none of them more zealously and efficiently than by the subject of this sketch. He was a brilliant and successful advocate, a fine judge of the law, and never descended to even the slightest artifice to gain the advantage of an opposing brother lawyer.

In the year 1860 our subject was elected to the State General Assembly, where he was serving at the beginning of the war, He side with the South, and was instrumental in recruiting and equipping the first company organized in Ray County for the defense of what he believed to be right. He ranked as Colonel in the Missouri State Guards, a military organization he had helped to create by his vote in the General Assembly. He was, by a majority of his comrades, elected to represent his district in the Confederate Congress, and in that capacity, as in all others, served with singular zealand promptness. He was present at the first meeting and at the final adjournment of that body. At the close of the war, the amnesty agreed upon did not extend to members of the Confederate Congress, and fearing that if he fell into the hands of the successful party his life would be taken, he went to Mexico, but soon after arriving in that country, was brutally murdered by a band of Mexican soldiers, on or about the 25th of August, 1865.

As printed in Portrait and biographical record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn counties, Missouri (1893). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.