Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1879

Here is what the abbreviations in the bios stand for: far: farm; Co.: company or county; dir: dealer; IVA: Iowa Volunteer Artillery; IVC: Iowa Volunteer Cavalry; IVI: Iowa Volunteer Infantry; P.O.: Post Office; S. or Sec.: section; and st.: street.

Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Biographical Section, 1879, page 607
COL. GEORGE W. KINCAID, deceased. The subject of this brief sketch was born in West Union, Adams Co., Ohio, April 24, 1812; at an early age, was apprenticed to learn the trade of tanner, and thus, from the very beginning, was thrown on his own resources. He married in Ohio Miss Lovisa Steinbergen; they removed to Muscatine Co., in 1836, thus becoming pioneer settlers of Iowa, though it is not as a pioneer Col. Kincaid was most distinguished and deserved most honor, but as a patriot, and at the breaking-out of the war of the rebellion, he was fired with sentiment which Walter Scott must have felt when he wrote those beautiful words;

 
                            "Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
                               Who never to himself hath said
                               This is my own my native land ?
                                If such there breathes, go mark him well,
                                For him no minstrel raptures swell;
                                High though his titles, proud his name,
                                Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
                                Despite those titles, power and pelf,
                                This wretch concentered all in self,
                                Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
                                And doubly dying shall go down
                                To the vile dust from which he sprung,
                                Unwept, unhonored and unsung."

At the beginning of the war of the rebellion, though past the legal age for military duty, Col. Kincaid's spirit could not be idle, and he spoke on every occasion with fervor and devotion of the Union. In 1862, he organized the 37th Regt. I. V. I. (generally Known as the Gray-Beards) of which regiment he was made Colonel, and served in that capacity until muster-out of the regiment at the expiration of three years' service. Though Col. Kincaid was never an aspirant for office, he exhibited a deep interest in politics; he was originally a Whig, but became a Republican at the organization of that part, and remained a firm supporter of the same until his death, Oct. 19, 1876. He was a consistent member of the M. E. Church.

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