William Ray John Wesley Finch
By Marilyn Nunnery
William Ray John Wesley Finch, also known as William RJW Finch, passed away at his home, surrounded by his wife and family, on Monday, November 2, 1903. He was born on August 21st, 1831 and was 72 years, 2 months and 12 days old.
Mr. Finch was the 4th child of 10 born to Hudson Finch and Mary Mintz Lindsey of Nash County. He was preceded in death by both parents, 5 of his siblings, and his daughter, Maggie Finch.
William grew up working on his familys farm, never attended school but did learn to read the family bible. He married Margaret Byrd in 1853 and they raised a family of 6 children in Bailey, NC. He enlisted in the NC 47th Regiment in 1862 and fought in the Civil War, battling a personal illness and continuing his service as a nurse until his return home at the end of the war in 1865.
William and his family continued to work the family farm and quite often "Uncle William", as he was called, would attend Methodist and Baptist revivals to preach to locals. Services will be held at Mt. Pleasant Church, of which Williams father Hudson was a founding member. He will then be interred in the family burial plot on his farmland.
William RJW Finch is survived by his wife and children, Delphia Griffin (Monroe), Penina Glover (James), David (Ella), Ellen Brown (Dock), and Cornelius (Memie) and several grandchildren.