Francis Miles Finch

Francis Miles Finch (1827–1907) was an American judge, poet, and academic associated with the early years of Cornell University. One of his poems, "The Blue and the Gray", is frequently reprinted to this day.

Biography

Francis Miles Finch was born in on June 9, 1827, in Ithaca, New York. He was educated at Yale University, where, according to a contemporary, he was a "thoughtful scholar in the class-room, a prizeman in the essay competitions, an influential editor of the Yale Lit an impressive speaker in the Linonian, hail-fellow-well-met on the campus, sedate, impulsive, big-hearted, wise, witty, everywhere he was the ideal collegian." Because of his achievements, he became a member of Skull and Bones. Having been graduated in 1849, he returned to Ithaca, became a lawyer, and speedily distinguished himself in his profession. He soon became as a speaker in the political campaigns which preceded and followed the Civil War. [http://www.archive.org/details/blueandgrey00fincrich The Blue and the Grey and other verses] , by Francis M. Finch, foreword by Andrew D. White, 1909] .

He was a friend of Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, and at the organization of Cornell University, he became warmly interested in the institution, was one of its trustees, and its counsel and friendly adviser through its early troubles. [http://nytompki.org/Landmarks/landmarks_Part2-10.htm Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York] by John H. Selkreg, 1894] He also lent the university his literary skills, as a contemporary relates: "His indignation at the attacks upon Mr. Cornell by the enemies of the university aroused him to fight strenuously and successfully in the courts, in the press, and in public meetings, while the music of the university chime, heard at dawn, noon, and nightfall above the ripple or roar of the adjacent waters, inspired him to write songs which have been sung by Cornell students from their first arrival forty years ago until the present hour."

Early in Ulysses S. Grant's first presidential term (circa 1870) he was appointed collector of internal revenue for the Twenty-sixth District, New York, which office he resigned after holding it for four years. In May, 1880, he was appointed judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York to fill a vacancy of six months. In 1881 he was re-appointed to fill a vacancy of one year. In the fall of 1881 he was elected to a full term of fourteen years, expiring on December 31, 1895. He lectured at the Cornell's School of Law from 1887 onwards, and on the death of Hon. Douglass Boardman in the year 1891, was unanimously elected as dean of the Law School.

Fitch wrote poetry throughout his life, but declined a chair in rhetoric literature at Cornell, thinking his poetry was "only incidents along the line of a busy and laborious life." [ [http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/lp-2001/finch.html Francis Miles Finch] from the "Strangers to Us All - Lawyers and Poetry" website ] Perhaps his best known poem, "The Blue and the Gray", written in remembrance of the dead of the American Civil War, was inspired by a women's memorial association in Columbus, Mississippi, who on April 25, 1866 tended the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers, treating the dead as equals despite the lingering rancor of the war. [ [http://www.trinityriverseminars.com/CM/Memorial%20Day_5_27_07.htm Conversations in Management] from Trinity River Seminars and Consulting ]

Francis Finch was married May 25, 1853 to Elizabeth A. Brook, who died on March 28, 1892. They had three children: a son, Robert Brooke, and two daughters, Mary Sibley and Helen Elizabeth. He died in 1907, and a collection of his poems, "The Blue and the Gray, and other verses", was published by friends two years posthumously.

References

Notes

*This article contains text from "Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York", a publication in the public domain
*This article contains text from "The Blue and the Gray, and other verses", a publication in the public domain

External links

*" [http://www.archive.org/details/lifeservicesofez00fincrich The life and services of Ezra Cornell : an address delivered at Cornell University on Founder's Day (January 11th, 1887)] " by Francis M. Fitch, from the Internet Archive
*" [http://www.archive.org/details/blueandgrey00fincrich The Blue and the Gray, and other verses] " by Francis M. Fitch, 1909, from the Internet Archive
*worldcat id|lccn-n85-158201