Brother Finnell was born in 1865 in Ann Arbor, Mich. He grew up on a family farm where his parents, both Irish immigrants, raised their eight children. By 1888, Finnell had moved with his older brother Patrick to Chicago, where they both worked as switchmen for the railroad. Soon after, Finnell joined the Chicago Lineman's Union, and in early 1891, Henry Miller, then president of St. Louis AFL Local 5221, met with the group during his travels to plant the seeds for a national organization of electrical workers. That November, the Chicago linemen sent Finnell to St. Louis as their delegate to the first IBEW Convention.

On the first day of the convention, Brother Finnell was elected convention secretary and served on the Credentials and Constitution committees. Although he ran for grand president (and lost to Henry Miller), Finnell was elected as the third grand vice president. According to the convention proceedings, a dinner party was hosted by Local 5221 after the election, during which Finnell "gave quite a lengthy talk dwelling particularly on the necessity of the laboring classes to organize for their own good and welfare."

On the final day of the convention, Finnell presented a motion to accept a loan of $100 from Local 5221 and to have it repaid from the IBEW general fund. At the time, this represented the total amount of operating funds for the nascent union. The motion was passed.

As third grand vice president, Brother Finnell was tasked with organizing the northwest of the United States. To that end, he became a founding member of Chicago Local 9 on Jan. 14, 1892, and went on to organize Kansas City, Mo., Local 18; Omaha, Neb., Local 22; and Locals 23 and 24 in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn.

According to Oakland, Calif., Local 283 member Hugh Murrin, who published a history of the IBEW in the November 1916 issue of The Electrical Worker, Brother Finnell traveled "without funds and depended entirely upon his own ability as a workman to bear the expenses in his mission." Murrin also attests to the salting work done by Finnell when "he organized the employees of the Bell Company in Minneapolis and St. Paul against the wishes of Superintendent P. G. Reynolds while in his employ."

Brother Finnell served as a Local 9 delegate to the second IBEW Convention, held in Chicago in November 1892, where he stepped down from his position as a grand vice president. In 1899, he again represented Local 9 at the sixth IBEW Convention in Pittsburgh. In 1900, according to the U.S. Census, Finnell was still living in Chicago with his brother Patrick (now married) and working as an electrician. He later moved to a boarding house in 1910, where he stayed until 1930 working as an electrician for the telephone company and then as a railroad watchman. At no point was he listed as married or widowed in any record. A death certificate from Chicago indicates that he died in 1932 and was buried at St. Joseph's Cemetery in River Grove, Ill.

Brother Heizelman was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1861. His parents, both Swiss immigrants, had emigrated in 1860 with their four daughters. In 1880, Frederick found work in the city as a telegraph repairman. A few years later, he married Ella Gavin, and they had two sons, John and Edward, whose descendants still live today. As a member of Toledo's Lineman Union, Heizelman was chosen as a delegate to attend the first IBEW Convention in 1891.

At the convention, Heizelman served as secretary for the Committee on the Constitution. Like Finnell, he was also nominated for grand president but lost to Miller. He was then nominated for grand secretary-treasurer but lost to J.T. Kelly. At last, he ran for second grand vice president and won the seat. Upon returning home, he became a founding member of Toledo Local 8 when it was chartered on Dec. 31, 1891. He served as Local 8's delegate at the second IBEW Convention in 1892, at which time he also stepped down from his role as a grand vice president.

A few years later, Heizelman moved his family to Rome, N.Y., to find work as a lineman, according to the U.S. census of 1900. By 1910, they had all moved back to Toledo, where Heizelman continued his line work. Sadly, he died just two years later on Aug. 12, 1912 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Toledo. His cause of death is unknown.

UPDATE: Thank you to Brother John Kahrhoff of Local 1 in St. Louis for providing additional information on founders James Dorsey and Joseph Berlovitz, both of whom lived in St. Louis and were profiled in our August issue. Kahrhoff found records showing that Dorsey worked as a telegraph lineman throughout the 1890s and that Berlovitz served as press secretary of Local 5221 and worked as a lineman for the Van Nort Brothers.