Horace Adams Phinney
Horace Adams Phinney was born either in September of 1899 in Thomaston, Knox County, Maine, or in 1898 in Hampden, Maine.1 His father, Horace Coleman Phinney, born on June 28, 1861, was a native of Portland, Cumberland County, Maine.2 His mother was Sarah Estelle (Clark) Phinney, who was born about 1872 in England.2,3 Horace had one sibling, Beryl Isabelle Phinney, who was born in New York, NY, on May 4, 1903.3
Horace A. Phinney was educated at Trinty College in Hartford, Connecticut, and New York Law School.4 He was a lawyer, and at the time of his death Horace had worked for the Third Avenue Railway Corporation for six years.5
About 1924, Horace and Loretta F. Delaney were married. The couple had one child, Jeanne Montgomery Phinney, who was born in about September of 1925.6
Horace Adams Phinney died at the age of 34 at Bellevue Hospital (New York) on April, 21, 1932. Earlier in the week (Sunday, April 17, 1932), Horace had fallen from the platform to the tracks at the Christopher Street Station of the IRT subway and suffered a severe head fracture, from which he did not recover. He was survived by his wife, Loretta (Delaney) Phinney, and daughter, Jeanne Montgomery Phinney, of 42-20 162nd Street, Flushing, Queens, NY. He was also survived by his mother, Mrs. Sarah C. Phinney. Horace had served in the U.S. Navy during WWI, and he was a member of the American Legion, Post 106.7
The obituary in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle also indicates that Horace was a direct descent of John Quincy Adams, which would seem to indicate that somebody believed he came from the same family line as that the sixth President of the United States. If that was the assumption, it will require research that I have not yet done. However, we know that President John Quincy Adams, the son of the second President of the United States, John Adams, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts.8 We also know that Horace's grandfather, Thomas Files Phinney, was married to Sarah Elizabeth Pitcher.9 One reference indicates that Sarah Elizabeth (Pitcher) Phinney was a descendant of "the Adams family of Massachusetts."10 Until proven, the comment in Horace's obituary remains a tantalizing mystery.
1 Finney-Phinney Families in America: Descendants of John Finney of Plymouth and Barnstable, Mass., and Bristol, R.I., of Samuel Finney of Philadelphia, Pa., and of Robert Finney of New London, Pa., Richmond, Va., W. Byrd Press, Richmond, Va., 1957. It is possible that Horace was born in 1898, which would seem to be supported by his age (11) in the 1910 U.S. Census taken in April of that year. Also, Horace's obituary indicates that he was 34 years of age when he died on April 21, 1932, which would further indicate that 1898 might be a better date of birth for him. The obituary also states that Horace was born in Hampden, Maine, which does not correspond with the Finney-Phinney Families in America information.
2 Ibid. Horace Adam Phinney's obituary spells his mother's name as Clarke, whereas the Finney-Phinney Families in America book has it spelled as Clark.
3 1910 U.S. Census - T624 Roll 1027 Sheet 14A ED 705 Sup Dist 1 Ward 12 Manhattan.
4 Obituary for Horace Adams Phinney, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Friday, April 22, 1932, p. 17.
5 Ibid.
6 1930 U.S. Census, T626 Roll 1595 Sheet 15A ED 286 Supervisors District 34 AD 4, Flushing, Queens, New York. Jeanne's middle name is derived from Horace's obituary. To date (2009), i have not found any other documents that provide her middle name.
7 Obituary, op. cit.
8 Online White House biography of John Quincy Adams, http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/johnquincyadams/.
9 Finney-Phinney Families in America, op. cit.
10 George Thomas Little, Rev. Henry S. Burrage and Albert Roscoe Stubbs, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1909, p. 860.
John O'Connor