March 17, 1911

MR. MILES FINLEN The statement that "Death loves a shining mark, a signal blow," is truer than it is old, and seldom in this part of the country has it had a more suggestive and impressive illustration than when the shaft of the "insatiable archer" reached the heart of the late Miles Finlen of Butte, a pioneer mining man of prominence, owner of the Finlen Hotel, public official and citizen of Butte beloved by every rank and class of the people at the time of his death, which occurred in 1911, on the day devoted to reverence to the patron saint of his native land.

Mr. Finlen was born in County Wexford, Ireland, on February 14, 1847, and died in Butte, Montana, on March 17, 1911. The city of his birth is pleasantly located on the River Slaney, and has considerable river and some foreign commerce, especially in dairy products. The influence on the subsequent career of Mr. Finlen exercised by his native place and its commercial activity is difficult to estimate, as he was brought from it to Canada by his parents when he was but four years old. In his new home he lived to the age of seventeen years, when he left and went to Buffalo, New York, and a short time afterward to Erie, Pennsylvania. Then, after a time, he sought a new home in a far distant region, crossing the continent to California and locating at Grass Valley in that state.

It was at Grass Valley that Mr. Finlen got a good insight into the mining business, and in 1867, when he was twenty years old, he went from that city to Virginia City, Nevada, then at the height of its glory as a mining camp and rich producer of the precious metals. It is probable, therefore, that the bustling and intensive activity of American life, as he saw it, was the inspiration of his enterprise in business. But his genial and companionable disposition, his responsive heart and open hand, to every claim of humanity and his easy assimilation of every mood of the plain people of this country, which is always the expression of the great throbbing soul of mankind, were inheritances from his race, and among the best expressions of them this part of the country has seen.

The last home of Mr. Finlen's parents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Lacy) Finlen, was at Bay City, Michigan, where the mother died in March, 1899, at the age of eighty-four years, and the father on August 10, 1909, at the age of ninety-six. They were natives, also, of Wexford, Ireland, but residents of this country from 1868. In all the different places in which they made their home among the American people they were highly esteemed as sterling and sturdy citizens. Mr. Finlen's grandmother on the father's side was Mary (Dunn) Finlen, a notable woman who lived to an advanced age and made her mark in enduring phrase on, the people around her.

While living in Virginia City, Nevada, Mr. Finley formed an intimate acquaintance with the late Marcus Daly, which soon ripened into an enduring friendship that lasted and grew in intensity until the masterly mining king, one of Montana's great gifts to American citizenship and American industrial development and progress, paid nature's last debt. In that city he also became known to William Skyrme and other men since prominent in the larger and upper circles of the mining industry of the world. He engaged in mining with them, and also became a very popular citizen of the community, serving two terms as street commissioner and rising to great prominence and influence in the public affairs of the place.

In 1888, just before the territory of Montana was allowed by the federal government to throw off the youthful dress of immaturity and assume the full habiliments and dignity of statehood, Mr. Finlen took up his residence in Butte, and for fourteen years was one of the large mine owners in the district. He operated the Buffalo mine until 1892, then the Ramsdel Parrot for four years and later the Minnie Healy. These properties were all held by him under lease and bond and became famous under his development, usually while in his control, having a working force of five or six hundred men. In 1900 he disposed of his mining interest in Butte, having in 1893 purchased the McDermitt Hotel which has since been known as the Finlen and which he conducted for one year before his death. It is now conducted by his son. For several years Mr. Finlen owned a fine stud of race horses, to the purchase and development of which he gave much time and attention. They all came from the famous Marcus Daly stock farm. For several years he made his home in New York and had a stable at Gravesend. After locating at Butte Mr. Finlen soon became an influential force in the affairs of this city, and in the first session of the state legislature was made sergeant-at-arms of the house of representatives. He took a prominent part in the fight for the location of the state capital, favoring Anaconda because of his warm friendship for Marcus Daly, the champion of that city in the contest, and showed himself a warrior worthy of any opponent's steel. When the final test came he was a member of the legislature from the county which gave the deciding vote in the long, agitating and state-wide struggle.

Mr. Finlen was largely successful in his mining projects, prospered in all his other lines of business, managed all his affairs with judgment and accumulated a considerable estate. He invested in Butte real property on a rising market, and at the time of his death owned the Finlen Hotel and other houses and lots of value in the city. He was recognized as one of the men of large substance in a worldly way in the city, and was universally esteemed as one of Butte's most progressive, public spirited, enterprising and useful citizens.

When the hour of his demise approached the people of the city of all classes showed the high appreciation in which they held him. His final illness lasted many months, and he knew throughout its continuance that its end meant his death. But the courage and sturdy qualities of elevated manhood that had been prominent in his whole career sustained him and became conspicuous. To his devoted wife, who watched constantly at his bedside day and night, he was ever tender and considerate, easing her sorrow with cheering words, and to the friends who called to see him in great numbers he talked with the utmost strength and encouragement. His brother, Patrick Finlen, died several days before he did, and as his death was expected every hour, the body of the brother was withheld from burial in order that both might be laid to rest together. After the death of Miles the bodies were laid in state, side by side, in the Finlen Hotel, and hundreds of sorrowing friends of both men came to view them and pay their last respects to the departed.

The funeral services took place at St. Patrick's Catholic church, where solemn high mass was solemnized over the remains of the brothers. The pall bearers, honorary and active, were selected from the intimate friends of the brothers who had known them for many years, and the lodge of Knights of Columbus and the Butte Lodge of Elks, to both of which Miles Finlen had belonged, attended with almost their full membership. The brothers were buried in St. James Cemetery, Bay City, Michigan.

Mr. Finlen was married in Virginia City, Nevada, on June 30, 1872, to Miss Ellen Turner, the daughter of John and Margaret (O'Sullivan) Turner, natives of County Cork, Ireland. Mrs. Finlen's grandparents were John and Ellen (Roche) Turner, and her great-grandmother was Mary Luddy, a matron who has an honorable place in local Irish history. Mr. and Mrs. Finlen had two children, but one of whom is living, their son, James Finlen, who was born in Virginia City, Nevada, on April 14, 1873. He married Miss Mary Ivers, of Salt Lake City, Utah, the daughter of James Ivers. of that city. One child has been born of the union, James Ivers Finlen, who is now attending school in Butte.

The other child in the Finlen household was a daughter named Elizabeth, who was born in Virginia City, Nevada, on June 23, 1875, and died there on September 19, 1878. Miles Finlen was reared as a Catholic and was always devotedly attached to his church and zealous and effective in its service. The congregation to which he belonged never had, during his connection with it, an undertaking in which he did not take an earnest, practical and serviceable interest, equal if not superior to that of any other member of the parish. In fact, he never did anything by less than his whole force, and he has passed into history in Butte as one of the city's best, most enterprising and most useful citizens.

[Source: the History of Montana by Helen Fitzgerald Sanders, Volume 3, 1913 - Submitted by Friends for Free Genealogy]