Finis E. Downing
American politician (1846-1936)
Finis Ewing Downing (August 24, 1846 – March 8, 1936) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
Born in Virginia, Illinois, Downing attended public and private schools.
He engaged in mercantile pursuits in Virginia, Illinois, and Butler, Missouri from 1864 to 1880.
He served as member of the board of aldermen, Virginia, Illinois from 1876 to 1878.
He served as mayor 1878–1880.
He served as clerk of the circuit court of Cass County 1880–1892.
He studied law.
He was admitted to the bar in December 1887 and commenced practice at Virginia, Illinois.
He engaged in the newspaper business 1891–1897.
Secretary of the State senate in 1892 and 1893.
“Finis E. Downing” enters the record as american politician (1846-1936). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Finis, Downing and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1125667. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1846, 1936, 1864 and 1880.
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This entry incorporates text from “Finis E. Downing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.