Multnomah-Lane County OR Archives Biographies.....Kincaid, Webster Lockwood September 16, 1883 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 23, 2009, 12:22 am Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 62-64 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company WEBSTER LOCKWOOD KINCAID, of varied activities and wide interests and manifesting at all times a sincere and helpful devotion to the Rose City and to Oregon, which numbers him among her native sons, was born in Eugene on the 16th of September, 1883. The family residence in which he first opened his eyes to the light of day had been built many years before by his father, Hon. Harrison Rittenhouse Kincaid, who came as a pioneer to the northwest, his birth having occurred in Madison county, Indiana, January 3, 1836. He was of Scotch-Irish lineage, the family founded in Virginia at an early day. There Francis Kincaid, the great-grandfather of W. L. Kincaid, was born and after his marriage he removed to Madison county, Indiana, where he took up the occupation of farming eighteen miles northeast of Indianapolis. His son, Thomas Kincaid, born in Greenbrier county, Virginia, in 1800, was a youth of seventeen when the family removed to the middle west. He followed farming and worked at the blacksmith's trade and he was also well known in musical circles because of his skill as a violinist. He became one of the men of prominence and influence in his locality, served as captain of a company of state militia and was an influential factor in political circles, joining the republican party on its organization because of his opposition to the system of slavery. The same pioneer spirit which prompted his father to leave Virginia and establish a home in Indiana, then on the frontier, led him to leave the Hoosier state for the purpose of going to the frontier of Texas. However, he changed his plans on reaching St. Louis, where he met a friend who induced him to locate in Iowa. He passed through a very severe winter in Appanoose county, that state, and the extreme cold made him more firmly resolved to become a resident of Texas. In April, 1845, he started for the Lone Star state but met so many who were returning from Texas that he again changed his plans, spending the following winter in St. Francis, Arkansas. Later he lived for a brief period in Memphis, Tennessee, and then returned to his old home in Madison county, Indiana. The year 1853 witnessed his arrival in Oregon and he settled upon a farm not far from Eugene, where he continued to make his home until he went to live with his son, Judge Kincaid, passing away at his residence in 1865, when sixty-five years of age. His wife, Nancy Chodrick, was born in Butler county, Ohio, and she reached the notable old age of ninety-six years, seven months and twenty days. Their son, Judge Kincaid, when a youth of seventeen drove one of the teams that brought the family and their possessions from Indiana to the Willamette valley. It was a trip fraught with many difficulties and hardships, but the pioneers of that period were made of stern stuff and courageously faced not only the difficulties of the journey but also the arduous task of establishing homes and planting the seeds of civilization in the far west. The future jurist aided his father in transforming a tract of wild land into a cultivated farm and in the summer months he aided in digging a mill race at Springfield. The year 1855 saw him equipped with a pony and miner's outfit en route for the Rogue river mines, and later with a partner he started for Crescent City, California, where they engaged in chopping cord wood and splitting rails. In 1856 he traveled as a steerage passenger to San Francisco and after working there for several weeks proceeded by steamer to Sacramento and from there on foot to the mines near Auburn on the American river. Various activities claimed his attention, for he scorned no employment that would yield him an honest living, and eventually he reached his home in Eugene. Before going to California he had purchased six acres of land in the southern part of the town and he sawed logs on the shares in order to get lumber to build his house. He also manufactured charcoal, but in the meantime he had come to a recognition of the value of education and decided that he must have better opportunities along that line. Accordingly he attended Columbia College and soon afterward entered upon his journalistic career, his first writings being a series of articles which appeared in the People's Press, above the name Anti Vindex, in answer to articles written by President Ryan of Columbia College, under the pseudonym Vindex, for the Herald, a democratic paper, and supporting the secession movement. This led to Judge Kincaid becoming a member of the staff of the People's Press and he also there learned practical printing and press work, while at the same time he did most of the editorial writing. He also wrote for other papers, including the Copperhead Killer, which in connection with Joseph Ware he later purchased, changing the name to the Oregon State Journal. After a year, or in 1865, Judge Kincaid became sole owner of the paper, which he conducted for almost forty-five and one-half years. It was said of him: "Politically no man has exercised more influence than Judge Kincaid, for he has proven himself one of the strong and reliable men of his party and as such has won the commendation of leaders. He has always been a stanch republican and in 1896 joined the ranks of the silver republicans, in entire sympathy with whom he has since remained." From 1866 until 1879 Judge Kincaid served as a clerk in the United States senate and during his absence his friends nominated him and he was elected to the office of state printer. In 1894 he was the successful candidate on the republican ticket for secretary of state, discharging the duties of the office for four years. In 1898 he cast in his lot with the silver republicans, which occasioned his defeat for reelection, although he was accorded the highest vote on the ticket. In 1900, on the citizens' ticket, he was elected county judge, entering upon a four years' term in July, 1900. All through this period and while he was in office in Washington as clerk of the United States senate for thirteen years, from 1866 until 1879, he wrote for his paper and with his return to Oregon assumed active connection therewith. He always maintained a deep interest in agricultural progress in the state and followed stock raising on three hundred and twenty acres of the old Kincaid ranch. He dealt extensively in real estate, platting a part of his land and also laying out Kincaid Park of one hundred and fifty lots, together with a sixty-three acre tract extending southward. His realty holdings likewise embraced extensive acreage two and one-half miles from Creswell and in addition he had mining interests of importance. Judge Kincaid left an indelible impress upon the political history of his state. He was one of the six delegates from Oregon to the republican national convention in Chicago in 1868 and again in the convention at Philadelphia in 1872, U. S. Grant being nominated for the presidency on both occasions. He served as a delegate in many county and state conventions for a period of more than three decades. When he was secretary of state the office included not only the duties usually attached thereto, but also the office of state auditor, state insurance commissioner, state incorporation commissioner, state building and loan commissioner, and member of the boards that controlled the state insane asylum, the state deaf-mute school, the state reform school (now called the "State School"), the state blind school, the State Agricultural College, the State Normal School, the Soldiers Home and the sale and management of all state lands and the loaning and management of the large sums of money belonging to the school fund. Governor William P. Lord, his personal friend, appointed Mr. Kincaid a regent of the University of Oregon, but when Governor Geer assumed the position of chief executive he withdrew Judge Kincaid's name, which was then up for confirmation by the senate. The Judge was instrumental in securing the passage of the act locating the University of Oregon at Eugene. His activities were indeed far-reaching and resultant and his labors were a potent force in Oregon's development along agricultural, journalistic, political and intellectual lines. He was a member of the State Pioneer Association, the Oregon Historical Society, the Eugene Commercial Club and other organizations. He retired from active business in 1912 and passed away October 2, 1920. His wife bore the maiden name of Augusta Lockwood and was born in Macomb county, Michigan, where they were married September 29, 1873. It was while visiting her brother, C. M. Lockwood, at The Dalles that she became acquainted with Judge Kincaid and their friendship was renewed when they afterward met in Washington, D. C. She passed away only a few weeks prior to her husband, her death occurring in August, 1920. Their only child, Webster Lockwood Kincaid, passed an eventful youth in which were many interesting experiences and occurrences such as might come to the son of a father who was so closely and prominently connected with Oregon's development and with the activities which have made her history. When a lad of eleven he accompanied his parents to San Francisco and other leading cities of California and at the age of twelve years was with his father and mother when they visited various cities of Washington and of British Columbia. He early gave evidence of having inherited his father's journalistic ability and after this trip wrote an account of it under the title "Trip to Victoria," which was published in several newspapers and brought to him commendatory letters from various distinguished men. He was a lad of fourteen when he accompanied his parents on a trip not only through Washington but into Montana and the Yellowstone National Park, while subsequently he was with his father on trips over the Canadian Pacific and to the Canadian National Park. His education was not neglected either in schoolroom training, for he completed a course in the Eugene high school and then entered the University of Oregon, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1908. His travels, too, were constantly promoting his knowledge and advancing his efficiency and he had thorough business training with his father, to whom he became more and more largely an active assistant, handling his farms, his live stock and his extensive real estate holdings. In 1918 he came to Portland in charge of the estate, which has since been under his immediate direction and control, and at all times he has displayed business ability of a superior order, combined with keen insight, broad vision and sound judgment. On the 22d of January, 1909, Webster L. Kincaid was married at his parents' home in Eugene, Oregon, to Dorothy Catherine Hills, of Portland, a granddaughter of Cornelius Hills, who settled in Lane county in 1847 and was therefore one of the early pioneers of the state. Her father was J. A. Hills, a well known cattleman and sawmill owner. Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid became the parents of two sons. Harrison Rittenhouse Kincaid, a member of the class of 1929 at the University of Oregon, won the Class B championship for golf for Oregon in 1927; He is now captain of the Grant high school golf team. The second son, Webster L., Jr., eleven years of age, is a pupil in the Fernwood school. Mr. Kincaid is well known in Masonic circles, having attained the Knight Templar degree of the York Rite and the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, while with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine he has crossed the sands of the desert. He is also identified with the Grotto and he has membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is serving on the Portland realty board and he believes in maintaining the highest standards in connection with this field of business, in which he is operating through the management of the Kincaid estate. He belongs to the Eugene Commercial Club and that he has appreciation for the social amenities of life is indicated in his connection with the Columbia Country Club. His political endorsement has always been given to the republican party and while he has not held office as did his father, he has always kept thoroughly abreast of the questions and issues of the day and is therefore able to support his position by intelligent and comprehensive argument. He is likewise a member of the Oregon Historical Society and of the Sons and Daughters of Pioneers, which indicates his connection with a family whose history constitutes an important chapter in the annals of the state. Like his father, he is a forceful and resourceful man, alert and energetic, his labors crowned with successful achievement whether in the field of sports, of social activity, of civic interests or of business. 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