Memorials of Prison Life (1850) by Rev. James B Finley

Memorials of Prison Life (1850) by Rev. James B Finley

Author: Victorian Vault

Year: 1856

Memorials of Prison Life (1850) by Rev. James B Finley Reverend James Bradley Finley was a Methodist clergyman and author born in western North Carolina in 1781. He was the son of Robert W. Finley, a Presbyterian (later Methodist) minister, and Rebecca Bradley. His father, who studied for the ministry at Princeton, engaged in missionary activity in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky. He later settled north of the Ohio River near Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1796. Young Finley was educated at a school run by his father in Bourbon County, Kentucky. He later studied medicine and was admitted to practice in Ohio, however, his love of farming and hunting proved more powerful. He married Hannah Strane in 1801; they had one daughter. The Finleys settled in an isolated log cabin in Highland County, Ohio. In August 1801, Finley attended the great Cane Ridge camp meeting near Paris, Kentucky. At the Cane Ridge Church, previously served by his father, Finley witnessed the dramatic outpouring of emotion experienced by Christian believers, and he underwent a conversion experience on his journey home. It was not until 1808, however, following an incident in which he almost accidentally kil