The Tragic Events of the Finch Family

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the Blizard family. Richard Blizard was married to Catherine Finch. Catherine was the daughter of James Finch Jr and Sarah Tooker. James was the son of James Finch Sr and Catherine Gale. I assume the town of Finchville, NY was named after James Sr since that is where he lived after moving there from Goshen, NY. He had served in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Here’s the link to his descendants https://myfamgen.com/finch-family/.

But the real story involves James Jr and his family. Toward the end of 1843 a Typhus Fever Epidemic broke out in Mount Hope, NY where they lived. From mid November to late December, James, his wife Sarah, four of their adult children, and one grandchild died. Their son James Manning Finch died the following February, either from typhus or just exhaustion from caring for the rest of his sick family members. The manuscript “Descendants of John Finch of Connecticutt” (and no I didn’t type that wrong, Connecticut is spelled with two “t”s on the manuscript) contains a letter that James Manning Finch wrote in mid-December to his father’s brother Solomon who was then living in Ohio. James Manning Finch writes that his brother Jesse, age 35, died on November 30^th. He was not married and lived at home with his parents.  Martha, the daughter of his brother Peter, had died previously on November 17^th at the age of 20. Both his mother (Sarah) and his sister Sarah died on December 30. (This doesn’t make sense if the letter was written on December 13^th which is when it was supposed to have been written.) His father James Jr died on December 7^th. His brother John who was married and had three children and lived in Sussex County, New Jersey had been at their father’s farm during their parents’ illness and died back at his home in New Jersey on December 9^th. (Thankfully his wife and children did not get sick.) The cause of death for all the people who died was Typhus Fever. At the time the letter was written, his sisters Julia and Catherine(wife of Richard Blizard) were both very sick, but they hoped they would recover. Julia did survive, but Catherine died on December 30^th. James mentions that Solomon’s sister Karen (Finch) Newkirk was well. He also says that he and his brother Zophar were quite unwell. “Anxiety and fatigue in taking care of the sick and dying have worn us out.” Zophar survived, but James died the following February.

I promise I’ll find a more upbeat story to post next week.