William Mann Fincke (January 1, 1878 – May 31, 1927) was an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

player, pacifist minister, and educator. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

Yale Bulldogs football The Yale Bulldogs football program represents Yale University in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Yale's football program is one of the oldest in the world, having begun competing ...

team and was selected as a consensus All-American in 1900. He later became a Presbyterian minister, pacifist, and proponent of the

social gospel The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean envir ...

. Along with his wife, Helen, he founded both the

Brookwood Labor College Brookwood Labor College (1921 to 1937) was a labor college located at 109 Cedar Road in Katonah, New York, United States. Founded as Brookwood School in 1919 and established as a college in 1921, it was the first residential labor college in the co ...

and the

Manumit School The Manumit School was a progressive Christian socialist boarding school located in Pawling (town), New York, Pawling, New York, between 1924 and 1943, and from 1944 to 1958 in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Founded on purchased farm land by Rev. Willia ...

Early years

Fincke was born in New York City in 1878. His father, William Mann Fincke, was a businessman. His step-brother was

Lincoln Ellsworth Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History. Biography Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva F ...

. Fincke attended preparatory school at

The Hill School The Hill School (commonly known as The Hill) is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a campus in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization (TSAO). ...

Pottstown, Pennsylvania Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the incorporation as a borough in 1815. In 1888 ...

. He graduated from The Hill School in 1897. Finkce enrolled at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in 1899 and 1900. He was also a member of Yale's track team for three years and the captain of the track team during his senior year. In 1900, he was selected as a consensus All-American while playing at the

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

position for the undefeated

team. Finkce was a member of the Fraternity of Delta Psi fraternity (

St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the Calendar of saints, feast day of Anthony the Great, Saint Anthony the Great. The frater ...

) while attending Yale. He was also a class deacon and the chairman of the Class Supper Committee. He graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School in 1901 with a

Ph.B. Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; la, Baccalaureus Philosophiae or ) is the title of an academic degree that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's ...

degree.

Career

Business

Fincke worked for Ellsworth & Company, a Lake Erie ferry service owned by his father. In the position, he was involved in shipping coal to the factories of the Great Lakes region. After several years with Ellsworth & Company, he served from 1906 to 1907 as the general manager of the Pennsylvania-Ontario Transportation Company in

Woodstock, Ontario Woodstock is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The city has a population of 40,902 according to the 2016 Canadian census. Woodstock is the seat of Oxford County, at the head of the non-navigable Thames River, approximately 128 km from ...

. During this time, Fincke reportedly "lost interest in industrial management and was troubled by capitalism's exploitation of the laboring class."

Seminary and ministry

In 1908, Fincke next enrolled at the Union Theological Seminary. While enrolled at the seminary, became critical of the church's traditional role and its relationship to wealth and studied the works of

Walter Rauschenbusch Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) was an American theologian and Baptist pastor who taught at the Rochester Theological Seminary. Rauschenbusch was a key figure in the Social Gospel and single tax movements that flourished in the United States d ...

and

Washington Gladden Washington Gladden (February 11, 1836July 2, 1918) was a leading American Congregational pastor and early leader in the Social Gospel movement. He was a leading member of the Progressive Movement, serving for two years as a member of the Columbu ...

, who advocated the

. After graduating from the seminary in 1911, Fincke served as assistant pastor of the

Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church is a member church of the Presbyterian Church (USA), located at 73rd Street and Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side of New York City. In 1927 George Arthur Buttrick succeeded Henry Sloane Coffin as minister. ...

in New York. From 1912 to 1917, he was the pastor of the Greenwich Presbyterian Church in lower Manhattan. In April 1917, Fincke's congregation voted to remove him as pastor after he delivered a pacifist sermon rejecting the belief that

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, which the United States had recently joined, was a fight for liberty and democracy.

World War I

In 1917, Fincke enlisted in the

United States Army Medical Corps The Medical Corps (MC) of the U.S. Army is a staff corps (non-combat specialty branch) of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) consisting of commissioned medical officers – physicians with either an M.D. or a D.O. degree, at least one ye ...

. The ship on which he sailed to Europe was sunk by a German U-boat, but he was rescued. In France, he served as a stretcher-bearer and with the Presbyterian Hospital Unit. He served in Europe from May 1917 to January 1918.

Post-war activism and educational efforts

After the war, Fincke became active in the Labor Temple in New York City. He was the acting director of the New York Labor Temple from April 1918 to June 1919. The Labor Temple was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and offered social, religious and educational programs for the city's working class. During the Steel strike of 1919, Fincke traveled to

Duquesne, Pennsylvania Duquesne ( ) is a city along the Monongahela River in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 5,254 at the 2020 census. History The city of Duquesne was settled in 1789 and incor ...

, as part of the

Fellowship of Reconciliation The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR or FOR) is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. They are linked by affiliation to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). ...

. He led a fight for the free speech rights of striking steel workers and was briefly imprisoned on a charge of disturbing the peace. In 1919, Fincke established an experimental boarding school on the former Brookwood Estate in

Katonah, New York Katonah is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, in the U.S. state of New York. The Katonah CDP had a population of 1,679 at the 2010 census. History Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an ...

. Fincke had purchased the estate in 1914, and his wife and family lived in the estate. He converted the main house into an experimental school and dormitory for teen-aged workers from the "needle trades" in New York City and farms in the lower Hudson Valley. Fincke was assisted at Brookwood by

activists, including peace activist

John Nevin Sayre John Nevin Sayre (February 4, 1884 – September 13, 1977) was an American Episcopal priest, peace activist, and author. He was an active member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and helped found the Episcopal Pacifist Fellowship (no ...

, Socialist Party leader

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was the ...

, and labor economist

Robert W. Dunn Robert Williams Dunn (1895–1977) was an American political activist and economic researcher. Dunn was an active member of the American Civil Liberties Union from its creation, serving on that group's National Committee from 1923 and on its board ...

. Courses at the college included "The Literature of Revolt," "The History of Workers in America," and "Social and Economic Problems of Today." Students at the college were not charged tuition, and the operating costs were funded in part by Finkce's personal wealth. In 1921, the school became the

, the first residential labor college in the United States. In 1922, Fincke ended his involvement with Brookwood. Along with his wife, Helen, he moved to a farm in

Pawling, New York Pawling may refer to: *Pawling (town), New York, in Dutchess County **Pawling (village), New York, in the town of Pawling ***Pawling (Metro-North station), train station for the village **Pawling Nature Reserve, in the northern section of the to ...

. On the farm, he and his wife established the

, a co-educational boarding school referred to as a "laborers' peace school for young children." Manumit was also described as "an alliance of progressive labor and

progressive education Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''pro ...

" and was associated with a number of New York City labor unions.Threescore: The Autobiography of Sarah N. Cleghorn, 1936. pp. 253–81.

Personal life

In 1927, at age 49, Fincke died of lymphatic leukemia at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City. He was buried at Manumit School.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fincke, William 1878 births 1927 deaths 19th-century players of American football American football quarterbacks Yale Bulldogs football players Yale Bulldogs men's track and field athletes All-American college football players American Christian pacifists American Presbyterian ministers United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army soldiers Players of American football from New York City American Christian socialists Presbyterian socialists The Hill School alumni Educators from New York City