W. E. Finleyson, son of John J. Finleyson, who was born January 29, 1829, in Bibb County Georgia, served in the War Between the States one year. He moved to Wilcox County in 1869, and died August 15, 1878. He married a Miss Nobles, and they had three children: Ellen, who married W. L. Holt; Laura, who married John Pearce; and Amanda, who never married. His wife having died, he married Amanda Goodwin in 1858, and the following children were born to them: L. F. Finleyson, Sarah, Eugene, Belle, W. E., Emma, John Thomas, James B., and Alice.
W. E. Finleyson, the subject of this sketch, was born June 18, 1869, and married Laura Brown, February 20, 1890. They had ten children, all dying in infancy.
Mrs. Finleyson died in October, 1930. In 1932 Mr. Finleyson married Miss Eva Tippett, and they have one son, George Edward, born December 11, 1932.
Mr. Finleyson has been a most successful businessman. For over thirty years he has been a merchant in Finleyson, and he has identified himself in a constructive way with every enterprise connected with the town.
He owns and operates a fifty-horse farm, and is known as an expert agriculturist. He is a staunch Baptist, loyal to all the departments of the church’s activities, and is most liberal to the poor and needy. He is a real benefactor, and his family have in him a friend indeed. He has cared for a relative, providing a home for her during her life, and educated the children of this home, enabling them to be self-sustaining and take their places in the world as worthy citizens. There are many other worth while objectives that he has sponsored in a quiet, unassuming manner that he is too modest to reveal publicly.
Mr. Finleyson is spending his days in peace and comfort at his home in Finleyson, the town he helped to build, and is a reliable, honest, worthy citizen, one his church, his town, and his friends delight to honor.