William Kincaid Jr. Papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 30-407

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The papers of William Kincaid Jr. primarily comprise correspondence, essays, verses, and notes for composition and rhetorical classes, 1856-1867 and undated, most of which were organized under the title “Compositions and Scraps, mainly College Essays.” These writings were written by Kincaid before and during his student days at Oberlin College--in the Preparatory School, the College (A.B. 1865), and the Graduate School of Theology (Sem. 1867). The papers dating from Kincaid’s student years concern such subjects as patriotism, faith, and reason, John Locke’s works, theology, and suffrage for African Americans. Additionally, the papers include personal letters to a newspaper editor and Kincaid’s parents dating to the late 1850s and early 1860s, respectively. The great-granddaughter of William Kincaid Jr., Katherine Kincaid Newman, provided transcriptions of the items from his student years and her own notes regarding them in 2010.

Later correspondence and records (1870-1887) relate to his appointment as a financial agent for Oberlin College in 1870; his installation as a pastor of Second Congregational Church, where he served from 1876 to 1882; and his appointment as Treasurer of Oberlin College by President Fairchild in 1887. Additionally, the papers include minutes of Kincaid’s installation as a pastor of the Second Congregation Church in 1876 and the results of a church council meeting in 1882.

The Papers are organized into two series: Series 1. Oberlin College Student Materials, and Series 2. Career and Church Service at Oberlin.

Dates

Creation: 1856-1882, undated
Other: Date acquired: 1983 March 15

Creator

Kincaid, William, Jr. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Unrestricted

Biographical or Historical Information

William Kincaid Jr. was born in London, England on March 8, 1841. His father was a friend of the treasurer of Oberlin College, and together his parents met and entertained Oberlin professor John Keep on his visits to England to raise money for the struggling college. Kincaid was brought to Buffalo, New York with his parents at the age of six as they immigrated to the US. William Kincaid worked as a bookkeeper in Buffalo and Cincinnati to earn money for his education. He began at Oberlin in the Preparatory Department in either 1859 or 1860. He then went on to Oberlin College in 1861, graduating with the AB in 1865. He began graduate work in the Oberlin Theological Seminary, then transferred to the Princeton seminary for one year. Returning to Oberlin, he completed his theological course and graduated in 1868.

Kincaid married Martha J. Chapman, daughter of former Oberlin students, in 1865. Her mother had taught for eighteen seasons to earn money to pay for several years of study for herself at Oberlin College. Martha’s father came to Oberlin in 1836 at the age of thirty, where he met Martha’s mother. Her uncle, Lucius H. Parker, was one of the “Lane Rebels” who came to Oberlin from Lane Seminary in Cincinnati for freedom of speech regarding antislavery. Martha enrolled at Oberlin in 1860, graduating with the AB from the College in 1865 with William Kincaid. Both were active in Oberlin alumni affairs throughout their lives. They had three children.

Kincaid was a minister in Rushville, New York (1867-70); Leavenworth, Kansas (1870-76); Second Congregational Church, Oberlin (installed 1876, after which he spent two years in Spencerport, New York for health reasons); then Oswego, New York (1883-85). He was district secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in New York City in 1885-88, when he became secretary of the American (later Congregational) Home Missionary Society, holding this position until his death. Iowa College gave him the honorary Doctor of Divinity in 1887.

William Kincaid died after a long illness in Brooklyn, New York on February 12, 1897 at the age of fifty-five and eleven months.

Sources

Records of Graduates and Former Students (RG 28), William Kincaid and Martha Chapman Kincaid files.

Note written by Anne Cuyler Salsich