William Finlayson was "a wonderful man" per his granddaughter Loretta. He was a hardworking farmer in Bristol (Yorkville), IL for over four decades. William left his homeland, Scotland, in 1856 and sailed to America with his wife, Jeannette (Mitchell) Finlayson and their 4 young children: Thomas; Maggie; Isabella; and Janette, (known as Jessie). William's father Thomas had already emigrated from Scotland to Bristol, IL a year earlier; he became a successful farmer. Although William had been a hand loom weaver in his homeland, he desired to be a farmer with several acres of rich farmland like his father Thomas and his dream was fulfilled. To William and his wife Jeannette were born two more children; they were born in Bristol, IL: Minnie Finlayson (1859) and Elizabeth Hawley Finlayson (1863). Now the family was complete. William lived a long life, dying in Bristol, IL in 1901. His legacy were his children and his pioneering spirit: His son Thomas had served in the Civil War, and later married Kathleen Darfler, settling in Iowa; his daughter Maggie had married a Civil War veteran, Clinton Low, also settling in Iowa; Jessie had married Romilious Alvero Hiddleson, settling in Bristol (Yorkville); Isabella had married Eugene Regan (also a Civil War veteran), remaining in Bristol(Yorkville), and raising many children, most of whom remained in Yorkville throughout their lives; Minnie had married Edgar Gray, eventually moving to southern California with their two daughters, Ethel and Celia; and William's youngest daughter Elizabeth, known as Lizzie, had married McKinley Harbaugh, a schoolteacher and confectioner, settling in Rockford, IL (later moving to Kenosha, WI). Lizzie eventually moved to Los Angeles, CA with her son Ralph in the 1930's; she passed away in 1948 and is buried at the world famous Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA.

(He was born in the small village of Balquhidder which is the resting place of Rob Roy MacGregor, famous outlaw of yore.)