David Finley's papers do not provide exact knowledge of some important information (such as date or place of birth or date of death) or of his connection to Indiana University. Such biographical information as can be ascertained appears here.

David F. Finley was born about 1800 in Tennessee, and moved to Monroe County, Indiana, before 1822. Finley began work in Monroe County as a carpenter, but within a few years was involved in other activities and in public life. In 1827 he made several land purchases, was made supervisor of the maintenance of East Main Street in Bloomington, and served as treasurer for the local Masonic Lodge. Finley was involved in each of these activities for most of his life, and thus became acquainted with the Ketchams and other leading families of Monroe County.

As a family, the Finleys were geographically dispersed, with members moving as far west as Missouri and Iowa. David Finley served as a vanguard in southern Indiana for other family members. His brother George joined him after 1828, and a relation named Patsy Finley was living with him in 1829. George Finley had brought with him from Tennessee a slave named Dinah; in 1829 this relationship was converted to fifteen years' indentured service. By 1841 David Finley had married a woman named Jane, and together they had at least two children. Finley may have had a son from a previous marriage, named George W. Marchbanks.

Finley retained a post involving Monroe County roads until at least 1834, and acted as an attorney and physician on several occasions. At some point (perhaps during the Black Hawk War) he was commissioned a captain in the 13th Brigade of the Indiana Militia, serving as brigade quartermaster. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s he continued to deal in land and to build houses and buildings. In the 1850s he made at least one trip west, stopping in Missouri, and he invested in land in Kansas. These investments were jeopardized during the Civil War. During the 1860s Finley sought to look after his family, signing a mortgage, paying for medical care and loaning money to various relatives. He had investments with the bank of Buskirk and Hunter in Bloomington, and with the Western Finance Corporation of Louisville, Kentucky. He died about May of 1877.