Col. John Kincaid
Col. John Kincaid was born June 22, 1779. near Richmond, Virginia. He came with his father, Thomas Kincaid, to Limestone (Maysville. Kentucky) about 1788. In 1797, he came to the settlement at Manchester and remained there until 1800, when he married Sallie Hannah, March 27, 1800. and moved to near the Kirker graveyard. Here he and his wife lived for a few years and then moved to what is now the old Kincaid homestead, where they died. They raised a family of eleven children, seven boys and four girls, The boys were Thomas J., John H., Dr. William P., Dr. Samuel W. and Dr. W. P. Kincaid, who was Senator four years from the Clermont County District. John Kincaid was one of the first Justices of the Peace of Liberty Township and served from 1818 to 1830. He was commissioned Captain of the First Company in the First Batallion, Third Regiment, First Brigade and Second Division of the Militia of this State by Gov. Thomas Worthington, May 19, 1815. He was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Regiment in the First Brigade and Second Division of the Militia of Ohio by Thomas Worthington, Governor, October 20, 1818. He was commissioned Associate Judge for a term of seven years by Governor Allen Trimble, January 18, 1828. which he held at the time of his death, which occurred April 3, 1834. The letters and papers he left behind are living witnesses of a broad and well-balanced mind. He did as much for Adams County from 1800 to 1834 as any man who lived in it. In 1812, he raised a company at West Union for the war and was appointed Colonel of a regiment.
John Kincaid was a Presbyterian and helped to build and organize the stone church at West Union in 1809. But in 1830, the Presbyterian Church denounced Free Masonry and he was asked to renounce the order, which he positively refused to do, left the Presbyterian Church and joined the old Union Church at Bentonville.
John Kincaid was one of the charter members of the West Union Lodge, No. 43, Free and Accepted Masons, which was issued in 1817. He was the first Junior Warden and afterward Master several times. He was a Knight Templar Mason and his Royal Arch apron, sash and Knight Templar jewel are still preserved. The jewel is solid silver and finely engraved. They are all in fine condition and are nearing the cen tury mark. The possessor, his grandson, W. S. Kincaid, prizes them highly. Money could not buy them. Sallie Kincaid, wife of John Kin caid, died October 22, 1824, and on January 19, 1826, he married Dorcas Alexander.
On the morning of April 1, 1834, John Kincaid walked down across his farm to look at some calves and came in about ten o'clock, sick, and on the morning of the third, he was a corpse. He died at the age of fifty-five, yet he got in more than a good many men would in one hundred years. At the time of his death, he was the nominee of the Whig party for Congress and would have been elected had he lived.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time"- by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900