The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1949-07-14

Utth early OsssO NsSs0TT. OtbeT8
piIi appear in Forthcoming
issMes.
The Newmarket Devil
Tough? Wicked? Reckless? jim
mie Finley was all three with a
sprinkle of other things thrown in.
The writer recalls an old backwoods
adage of his own youth about some
preachers having bad boys-and Jim
mie Finley was preachers kid.
Born in 1871 in North Carolina to
Rev. Robert w. Finley and his bride
of year, Rebecca Bradley, James
B. Finley was Graded in civil war
and nurtured on bloodshed. Neighbor
massacred neighbor. Tories tried to
exterminate the Wings. All of Rebec-
ca Bradley Finley's brothers died in
the struggle.
One brother was killed at General
Gates defeat; another was murdered
by four Tories at his own door-shot
with his own rifle; a third died on a
prison ship. Jimmie's own father and
his congregation We're waylaid and
shot at on their way to church. One
member was killed by a shot fired
through a window when at prayer.
/ Reverend Finley received a ball
through the breast of his coat as he
stepoed out of his own door. Much
of such as this Jimmie Finley saw.
Rough Life of Backwoods
One Tory leader collected all the
wives of Wings he knew into one
house and hanged them by the neck
luntil nearly dead--in an attempt tc
make the women disclose the where
abouts of their husbands. In retalia
tion the 'teen-age sons of the womer
took the Tory by night to a swamp
and gave him 20 lashes each for tht
mothers he had hanged. Then they
tarred and feathered him and duckee
him into the swamp. The Tory never
again was seen.
Backwoods boys were brought uI
that way-and Jimmy Finley learned
to play good hand at cards; was
passionately fond of dancing; went
on many a spree; was fluent "cus-
SER and fought like a wildcat
when angry.
The boys Presbyterian father was
a Princeton graduate who had studied
for the ministry and became a mis-.
sionary in the wilds of North and
South Carolina and in Georgia. Be.
cause of Indian depridations the Fin
leys moved to Bourbon County, Ken.
lucky, where the father had two con.
gregations-one at Cane Ridge anC
the other at Concord.
| When James B. Finley was sever
he met both Simon Kenton and Simor
Girty, the Indian renegade. The boy
drifted into Highland County, Ohio
where he hunted, fished and fought
near Newmarket, south of Hillsboro
1t was there he got the nickname
"The Newmarket Devil"
| About that time a great religious
revival broke out in Kentucky, &C
companied by that strange phenome
ma, "the jerks" In August that yea
a big camp meeting was held at Can
Ridge, Kentucky, his fathers oil,
congregation, and James Finley, witt
a few rowdy companions, went to Sc
it and the place of his boyhood.
Flees Revival Scene
1T was an awful scene," Finle,
later related. Fully $4,000 person
milled around there; the noise "wa
like Niagara and it was a sea 0
humans agitated as by storm" III
counted seven preachers, all preach
ing at once from stumps, fallen tree
and wagons. Some were singing
others were praying; many wer
piteously crying for mercy and NOR
, were shouting wildly in joyft
: hilarity. Nearly everybody wa
| Jerking" Young Finley felt wea
at the stomach and fled to the woods
After a time he returned to tn
scene and found the waves of excite
, ment still higher and wilder. Finle
got on log to see better. "It was
surging sea of humanity" he relatet
AT one time | saw at least 500 sweI
down in a moment as il a battery {
a thousand guns had opened on then
And almost Immediately there follow
ed shrieks and shouts that rent tn
r very heavens"
5 Finley's hair stood up and
e chilled. The young fellow again file
!, to the woods and wished he ha
t stayed at home," he said.
/ This time he went to a tavern
e half-mile away and asked for brand
: That, he felt, would help him. The
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