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Lewis Spann Finch (1897 - 1974)

Lewis Spann Finch
Born in Anna, Union, Illinois, United Statesmap
Ancestors ancestors
Brother of
Husband of — married 31 Mar 1923 in Paducah, Kentuckymap
Died at age 77 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 9 Oct 2018
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Biography

Lewis was born in 1897. He was the son of George Finch and Sula Spann. He passed away in 1974.

Lewis Spann Finch was born on June 23, 1897 in Anna, Illinois, the son of George L. Finch and Sula (Spann) Finch.

Following the death of his father in 1900, Lewis lived with his aunts Julia Jones and Lou (Jones) Maxwell on Chestnut Street in Anna until 1905, when his mother remarried and took him with her and her new husband, Charles Beveridge Dewey, to Cairo, Illinois.

Sula and Lewis were still living in Cairo, with Charles Dewey, at the time of the 1910 U.S. Census. But sometime between 1910 and 1915, Sula and Lewis moved to Indiana (sans Mr. Dewey), where Sula began working at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home in Knightstown.

Believing that Lewis would receive a better education elsewhere, Sula sent him north to live on his own in Indianapolis, where he attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis during his junior and senior years, 1914 and 1915.

Following his high school graduation, Lewis attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He received his Bachelor's degree in 1921 (and an advanced degree in 1931).

While working on a sewer project in Grosse Point Farms, Michigan, Lewis met Louie Mae (Jones) Gray, and married her in Paducah, Kentucky (where he was serving as the city's sanitary engineer) on March 31, 1923.

In late 1925, Lewis was named state sanitary engineer for Indiana. Settling in Indianapolis, he had a long and distinguished career in civil engineering.

Employed by the State Board of Health from 1925 to 1933 as head of its water and sewage department, he pioneered efforts to clean Indiana waterways. From 1933 to 1941, he maintained a consulting sanitary engineer practice in Indiana and Kentucky. In 1942, he began working for the Indianapolis Water Company, most of the time as Chief Engineer, until his retirement in 1966.

Lewis was active in many professional organizations, including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Water Pollution Control Federation, the Scientech Club of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Scientific and Engineering Foundation (among others). He was also a member of the Indianapolis Athletic Club, the Athenaeum Turners and Triangle Fraternity.

Lewis passed away from granulocytic leukemia on August 8, 1974 in Indianapolis, Marion, Indiana followed with burial at the Crown Hill Cemetery (Plot: Section 223, Lot 289) in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. He was survived by his wife, Louie, his sons George, Robert and John, and his stepson, Richard.

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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Lewis by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Lewis:

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Categories: Indianapolis, Indiana | Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana