Orange
County
Biographies
COLONEL SOLOMON HENDERSON FINLEY
Colonel Solomon Henderson Finley, of
Santa Ana, is a prominent civil engineer whose professional activities have
constituted an important factor in the development of Orange County. He was born in Lincoln County, Missouri,
October 10, 1863, a son of Andrew Ramsey and Caroline (Gibson) Finley. His great-great-great-grandfather, James
Finley, the American progenitor of the family, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in
1687, and died in Pennsylvania in 1753.
The great-great-grandfather, William Finley, also a native of Ireland,
born in 1712, died in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1789. His son, John Finley, the great-grandfather
of Colonel Finley, was born in 1737, in Augusta County, Virginia, where his
death occurred in 1802. James Finley,
grandfather of Colonel Finley, was born in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1783,
and passed away in Lincoln County, Missouri, in 1866. Andrew Ramsey Finley, father of the Colonel,
was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, in 1818, and died in Santa Ana,
California, in 1896.
Solomon H. Finley was a little lad
of about seven years when in 1870 he came with his parents to California, the
family locating first in Monterey County and a year later in Sacramento County,
while in 1878 they took up their permanent abode in Orange County. Our subject is a graduate of Monmouth College
of Illinois, which institution conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of
Arts in 1886 and that of Master of Arts in 1889. The record of his professional activities
indicates his pronounced success in the field of civil engineering. In 1891 he supervised the construction of the
original city water system. He served as
county surveyor of Orange County, California, for twelve years, was city
engineer of Santa Ana for six years.
During the period between 1890 and 1905 he was engineer of five drainage
districts to reclaim the flooded areas southwest and west of Santa Ana. In 1893 he served as engineer for McFadden
Brothers in the construction of a railroad from Santa Ana to Newport Beach,
which was later extended to Huntington Beach and Westminster. In 1900 Colonel Finley built a concrete dam
in Santiago Canon for Madam Modjeska to supply domestic water for her “Forest
of Arden” home. He acted as chief
engineer of the Orange County highway committee during the construction of the
original paved road system in 1915 and 1916.
The activities of Colonel Finley
have also been of a most important character, beginning with his service as a
member of the board of education in Santa Ana in 1887. He was a member of the board of trustees of
the city of Santa Ana from 1900 until 1904 and served as mayor during the two
latter years of that period, when the original city hall was constructed. In 1907 the California legislature was on the
point of cutting off a considerable area from the western section of Orange
County and adding it to Los Angeles County.
The Orange County people, interested in retaining the county boundary as
it was originally fixed when organized in 1889, sent James McFadden and Colonel
Finley, who were active in its original formation, to the state capitol to
combat the proposed legislation. They
were successful in their mission. For a
period of twelve years, from 1916 to 1928, Colonel Finley was a member of the
board of supervisors of Orange County.
In 1920 he became a member of the Boulder Dam Association, with the
object of securing the construction of a dam across the Colorado River to
conserve flood waters. In 1923 he was
one of the organizers and became secretary of the Colorado River Aqueduct
Association, with the object of promoting the organization of the district to
deliver water from the Boulder Canon reservoir to the coastal plains in Los
Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. He was appointed by Governor Young in 1927 a
member of the California commission to negotiate with Arizona and Nevada
representatives for adjustment of water rights on the Colorado River. The following year he was one of the
organizers of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and became
a member and secretary of its board of directors, representing Santa Ana.
In the year 1901 in association with
P. A. Stanton and J. N. Anderson, Colonel Finley secured the contract to
purchase from Colonel R. J. Northam fifteen hundred
acres of land on which the city of Huntington Beach is now located. An interesting feature of this transaction
was that annual payments were to be made until the death of the grantor, when
the title should pass to the three grantees.
The first subdivision made by the group was called Pacific City. Later the Huntington Beach Company was
organized to more adequately finance the project, the Pacific Electric Railway
was built and the name of the city was changed to Huntington Beach.
On the 8th of January,
1891, Colonel Finley was united in marriage to Ida Hedges, a native of New
York. They are the parents of five
children, as follows: Gailene, who is Mrs. Donald Mynard
Swarthout; Malcolm Hedges, a physician by profession;
Knox Henderson, who is also a doctor of medicine; Wendell William, a certified
public accountant; and Rhodes Andrew, a student.
There is an interesting military
chapter in the life record of Colonel Finley.
He served in the California National Guard from 1890 to 1908 and during
the latter four years of that period was colonel of the Seventh Regiment,
retiring with that rank. In 1898 at the
time of the Spanish-American War, he was captain of Company L, Seventh California
United States Volunteers. His name is on
the membership rolls of the Spanish War Veterans and the Sons of the
Revolution. He gives his political
allegiance to the Democratic Party, is a member of the Rotary Club and is a
Presbyterian in religious faith. His
deep love for the city and county of his adoption has been expressed by
tangible efforts in their behalf, and a well ordered, upright life of marked
usefulness has won for him the respect, confidence and good-will of his fellow
men as well as individual success.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 415-418, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S ORANGE COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES