railroad executive, construction engineer, b. Boston, Mass. He attended Oberlin College, and in 1857 settled in Oshkosh. After practicing law for a few years, he began his long career as a railroad construction engineer, and built lines in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Returning to Wisconsin, he settled in Milwaukee and became associated with the Wisconsin Central R.R. (1878). He was general manager (1878-1886), and managing director (1886-1888). While with the Wisconsin Central, he organized the subsidiary firm of Colby and Finney Construction Co., which built the line from Abbotsford to Chippewa Falls and St. Paul. He was an organizer of the Wisconsin Union Trust Co. (1890). About 1899 he left Wisconsin, and for several years was engaged in railroad building in the Southwest. He was president of the Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma R.R. (1904-1907), and about 1907 retired to Pasadena, Calif. Who Was Who in Amer. (1943); R. L. Martin, Hist. of Wis. Central (Boston, 1941); Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 20, 1916.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Frederick Norton Finney Correspondence for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]