Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


JAMES E. FINCH.� A highly esteemed resident of Fresno County is 
James E. Finch, a native of the Buckeye State, where he was born on Feb- 
ruary 7, 1856. near Greenfield, Fayette County. His father, Joseph A. 
Finch, was a farmer and died in Ohio when James was twenty-five years 
old ; his mother, who in maidenhood was Amanda Collier, passed away four 
years after her husband. James E. Finch was the fourth child in a "family 
of six, and was obliged to make his own living from the age of sixteen 
years. He hired out to work on farms, which precluded his attendance at 
school : but undaunted by adverse circumstances, and being an untiring 
worker and ambitious to get ahead in the world, he has neverless succeeded 
and became the owner of a twenty-acre vineyard near Lone Star. 

In 1882, James E. Finch left his native state to try his fortune in the 
West, locating near Grand Island, Nebr. Six years later he was united in 
marriage with Mrs. Malinda Baldwin, daughter of Harvey Murdock and 
widow of Lindley Baldwin, by whom she had two children, one of whom 
is Mrs. Charles McBride, a sketch of whose husband appears on another 
page of this history. Mrs. Baldwin had proved up on a Nebraska home- 
stead, and after her marriage to James E. Finch he continued farming in 
Nebraska until their removal to California in 1894. After their arrival in the 
Golden State, Mr. Finch purchased twenty acres of land, one-half of which 
was in vines, and the remainder in trees. This property he eventually sold 
and in 1908 bought his ranch of twenty acres near Lone Star, which he 
owned until he sold it in March, 1919. 

Mr. Finch is a conscientious and industrious rancher, and is highly 
esteemed in his community for his irreproachable character and high prin- 
ciples in all business transactions. In political matters he supports the 
Republican platform ; and he is an honored member of the Raisin Growers' 
Association. Mr. and Mrs. Finch are the owners of a residence in Fresno, 
situated on Coast Avenue.