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After a brief illness, Maj. Joseph H. Finks died at his home, in Fayette, Mo., on April 29, 1915, at the age of seventy-eight years. He had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances throughout the State, who sorrowed at his passing. He had held the position of marshal of the State Supreme Court for many years and was prominent among the citizens of Howard County, who gave character to that citizenship. Joseph H. Finks was born in Green County, Va., August 7, 1837, the son of Capt. James Finks, who went from Virginia to Missouri in 1836 and there married Miss Caroline Hughes in Howard County; he then returned to Virginia, but again removed to Missouri in 1851 and made it his permanent home. Joseph Finks was educated in the common schools of the county and at Randolph-Macon College. He had entered upon the life of a farmer when the call of the South sounded in 1861, and he enlisted under Governor Jackson's first call for troops and was elected first lieutenant of his company, Shortly afterwards he was commissioned lieutenant colonel by the Governor and assigned to the staff of Gen. John B. Clark, Sr. At the expiration of his term in 1862 he entered the regular Confederate army, was commissioned major by President Davis, and successively held positions on the staffs of Generals Frost, Clark, and Parsons, and was with the latter at the time of the surrender. However, Major Finks never surrendered, but went to old Mexico. Returning to the States, in 1870 he was elected Circuit Clerk of Howard County, reelcted in 1874, and in 1878 he was sent from his county to the legislature, where he took high rank as an ablle and conscientious legislator. In December, 1873, he was married to Miss Lizzie Harvey, of Chariton County, who survives him with two daughters. The founder of the Finks family in America came from Switzerland, and one of Major Finks ancestors, Mark Finks, was a captain in the Revolutionary army, serving under General Lafayette, His grandmother, James Finks, was a soldier in the War of 1812.
SOURCE: Confederate Veteran Magazine, August, 1915.
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