Springfield-Greene
County LibraryEarly and Recent History and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Representative Citizens
ELDER NEWTON FINLEY. Each man who strives to fulfill his part in connection with human life and human activities is deserving of recognition, whatever may be his field of endeavor, and it is the function of works of this nature to prepare for future generations an authentic record concerning those represented in its pages, and the value of such publications is certain to be cumulative for all time to come, showing forth the individual and specific accomplishments of which generic history is ever engendered. Although yet quite a young man, the record, brief though it is, of Elder Newton Finley, secretary and, treasurer of the Anchor Broom Works, of Springfield, is worthy of perpetuation within these pages, as we will readily ascertain by a study of the same in the following paragraphs.
Mr. Finley was born at Greenfield, Dade county, Missouri, December 15, 1885. He is a son of Albert N. and Thurzy (Daughtrey) Finley, both natives of the above named town and county, each representing prominent old families there. They were reared, educated and married there and are still living on a large farm two miles southwest of Greenfield. Their family consisted of nine children, namely: Mrs. Bessie Erisman, Mary Frances, Will P., Elder Newton, of this sketch; Sallie, Fred, Lloyd, Marie and Alma; the last five named are all at home with their parents.
Mr. Finley, of this sketch, was reared in his native community and received a good practical education in the Greenfield schools, graduating from the high school there. In the fall of 1907 he came to Springfield and attended a business college for nine months, and on June 8, 1908, took a partnership in the Anchor Broom Company, which was incorporated in 1901, and he has remained with this concern to the present time and is now secretary and treasurer of the same, and its rapid growth during the past few years has been due in no small measure to his industry, sound judgment and foresight. Recently the firm has added the manufacture of mops to their long established broom business, and the new department was a success from the first. This has been one of the best known and most successful broom works in the Southwest for a decade or more and its products are eagerly sought for over a wide territory, owing to the superior quality of the famous brands of brooms which the firm produces--the "Monarch," "Blue Ribbon," "Golden Rod," "Perfection," and "Little Gem." These brooms are shipped in large consignments over all the southwestern states, especially Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, eastern Kansas and Missouri. During the past year about twenty carload lots have been sent to various points, to say nothing of the vast number of smaller shipments, and each succeeding year brings a larger volume of business.
Mr. Finley was married April 14, 1914, to Nell Sullens, a daughter of J. L. Sullens, who was for a number of years one of the most prominent ministers of the Southern Methodist church in southwest Missouri. He and his wife were natives of central Missouri. They came to Springfield in 1906 where he was pastor of Campbell Street Methodist Episcopal church, South. He had filled numerous charges at various points in this part of the state and always built up the church and was popular with his congregations, being regarded by all as a man of talent and rare usefulness. He met an untimely death by accident while hunting in the autumn of 1906. His family consisted of eleven children, namely: Ernest, Roy, Clarence (deceased), Mabel, Nellie, who married Mr. Finley; Leonard, Ethel, Lee, Cora, Emery and Walter. Mrs. Finley was educated in the schools of Springfield.
Politically, Mr. Finley is a Democrat. He belongs to the Springfield Commercial Club, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
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