Michael L. Finnell
Michael L. Finnell, president and general manager of the Tranchant & Finnell Company, merchant millers and proprietors of the Osborn Mills at Osborn, this county, one of the oldest continuously operated mills in this part of the state, is also president of the First National Bank of Osborn.
No history of Greene county would be complete without some reference to the old Osborn Mills, now and for some years past operated under the present management, the Tranchant & Finnell Company, of which Mr. Finnell, as noted above, is president; F. A. Tranchant, vice-president and treasurer; J. B. Finnell, secretary, and F. Diefenbach, superintendent. This old water-power mill was established at Osborn in 1857 by Samuel Stafford, who some years later sold out to Joseph Harshman, who presently disposed of his interest in the mill to J. J. Tranchant, who continued in charge for some years, or until 1887, when Tranchant & Finnell assumed control and reorganized the whole business, adding to the capacity of the mill and in other ways extending its scope. In 1913 another reorganization occurred, the business then being incorporated under its present corporate title, and since that time has been operated at full capacity. In November, 1915, one of the mills, with a capacity of two hundred barrels, was destroyed by fire and since that time the other two mills, each with a capacity of two hundred and fifty barrels, have been operated at full capacity night and day.
Michael L. Finnell, head of the milling concern, was born at Dayton, but was reared at Greenville, county seat of Darke county, in the schools of which city he received his early schooling. He supplemented the same by a course in a commercial college at St. Louis and then became engaged as a traveling salesman for the Peruna Drug Manufacturing Company, of Pittsburgh, later of Columbus, and after three years spent on the road in behalf of that company was made secretary and manager of the company, which position he occupied until 1887, when he entered upon his present connection with the Osborn Mills, a member of the firm of Tranchant & Finnell, which later was incorporated under its present firm style, and has ever since continued in management of the mills. Mr. Finnell also is president of the First National Bank of Osborn.
On October 22, 1886, Mr. Finnell was united in marriage to Attie C. Tranchant. daughter of J. J. and Amelia Tranchant. the former of whom was the proprietor of the Osborn Mills prior to the reorganization of 1887 mentioned above. Mr. Finnell is a Republican and for seventeen years served the public as a member of the village council. He is a thirty-third-degree Mason, or sovereign grand inspector-general of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, having been called to the supreme council from the consistory at Dayton, and is also prominently identified with the work of the Knights Templar, being the deputy grand commander of the Ohio grand commandery.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918