Person

John William Finnell (Adj Gen'l, Kenton Co. State Rep, attorney)

b. 1821-12-24 d. 1888-01-25

Covington, Kentucky, attorney, politician, statesman, editor, and soldier. Winchester, Kentucky, native. Son of Nimrod L. Finnell. Married to Elizabeth Wall Finnell in Harrison County, Kentucky, on September 7, 1841. Married to Elizabeth S. Tureman Finnell in Nicholas County on February 6, 1844. Father of Virginia Finnell, Ida Finnell, Joseph Finnell, and Nelly Finnell. Graduated from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1838. Editor at the Daily Intelligencer in Lexington in 1840. Read law with Richard H. Menefee. Graduated from law school at Transylvania University in 1841. Practiced law in Carlisle, Kentucky. Successful Whig candidate for the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Nicholas County in 1843. Editor of the Commonwealth in Frankfort, Kentucky, from 1844 to 1848. Appointed secretary of state of the Commonwealth of Kentucky by John J. Crittenden in 1848. Appointed secretary of state of the Commonwealth of Kentucky by John LaRue Helm in 1850. Practiced law in Covington from 1852 to 1861. Represented Archibald Gaines in the fugitive slave case of Margaret Garner in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856. Delegate to the Constitutional Union Party national convention in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1860. Owned two enslaved persons in Covington in 1860. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from Kenton County, Kentucky, from 1861 to 1863. Adjutant general of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from October 12, 1861, to September 1863.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Kenton County, Covington Ward 4, p. 699.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Kenton County, City of Covington, p. 2.

Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Harrison County Marriages, Film #001690281, p. 96.

Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Nicholas County Marriages, Film #000252392, p.66.

Lewis Collins and Richard H. Collins, Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky, vol. 2. Covington, KY: Collins & Co., 1874, 421, 437-38.

Mark Reinhardt, Who Speaks for Margaret Garner? (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010).

"John William Finnell (1821-1888)," Find A Grave, Memorial #13775594, accessed November 20, 2017, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13775594.

Citation

Finnell, John William. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32203055 (January 13, 2026).

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