Obituary: Lawrence Finlan

LAWRENCE FINLAN DEAD.
A Well Known Citizen Who Made His Own Tombstone.

On Wednesday evening last, Lawrence Finlan, (familiarly called “Larry,”) a well-known and highly respected citizen of this place, died at his home on Camp Hill after an illness of a few weeks. He was 78 years of age, and had been in this country 50 years, 40 of which were spent in Harper’s Ferry.

Beneath his rugged exterior beat an Irish heart warm and true and full of sentiment, and we are but one among many who will long remember him and wish there were more as good and honest.

In 1870– just twenty years ago– Mr. Finlan secured a large slab of slate stone from the R. R. Co., from whom he was working as stone-ctter, and began the work of making his own tombstone. For nineteen years he chiseled away at this stone, after working hours and in his leizure moments; and last summer a year he finished it and had it taken to the Catholic cemetery. It now marks his last resting place. Harper’s Ferry Sentinel.

The deceased was among the early acquaintances of the present editor of THE FREE PRESS, who has pleasant recollections of him. He lived in this town a number of years.