Dr. James Harkness Sinclair (1829-1916)

SINCLAIR, MOORE

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 4/4/2022 at 22:35:34

From Nevada Representative December 22, 1916 (page 1)

OBITUARY

DR. J. J. SINCLAIR

Further details come to hand concerning Dr. J. H. Sinclair, who was a pioneer merchant in Nevada and who was buried last Saturday in Des Moines. He was born in Ohio, June24, 1829, and died at Colorado Springs December 13, 1916, aged 87 years, 5 months and 19 days. His early life was spent in and around Carrollton, Ohio. His father died when he was quite young and his mother continued to conduct a mercantile business in which he assisted as soon as he was old enough, and later he and a brother conducted the store at Carrollton. Meanwhile he studied medicine and then hung out his sign as a physician. But possibly the rush of patients to his door was not sufficient to encourage him, and anyhow he quit doctoring at the end of a few weeks but retained from the experience the title of "doctor," which designated him through his life. He came to Iowa in 1855 and located at Des Moines, where he engaged in running a sawmill with Messrs. Leash and Harshop. In 1858 he came to Nevada and opened a store in partnership with Messrs. McCall and Garrett and a little later bought out his partners and took over the business for himself. He continued to run the business until 1867 or 1868, when he sold out to Messrs. Johnson and Ringheim. During this period he built on the corner where the Masonic building now stands the first store on the north side of the slough, the local business having theretofore been concentrated--what there was of it--around the north half of the city park, which then constituted the public square. The building noted was replaced by the Ringheim block, now the Masonic building in 1877; the the old store was moved to a location on Court avenue a little west west of the school house where for several years it did service as a Lutheran church. In the years of his store-keeping in Nevada Dr. Sinclair made a host of friends and tradition has it the platform in front of the store was the most popular resort in the village, when the weather permitted gathering there.

After selling out in Nevada Dr. Sinclair removed to Des Moines, and early in the '80s he moved to Colorado Springs, where he thereafter lived and continued to prosper. He left his section in Richland township, which cost him $3,500 and was probably worth $125,000 when he died, and enough other property to make him worth about half a million. He was twice married, his first wife having died here and been buried in Des Moines. Both of his wives were Ohio women, and each of them had on child which died in infancy. He was a lifelong Presbyterian; and while we do not know that there is anything official about it, yet there is an understanding that some Presbyterian charities will benefit from his estate. He was a most competent and genial man, and he lived happily to a very ripe old age. Mrs. Sinclair survives him, and his one other near relative is a sister, Mrs. Eliza Moore of Los Angeles.