GOV. JOHN HENRY KINKEAD

Was born at Smithfield, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, on the tenth of December, 1826. Three years after his parents removed to Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio. Some years later the family made their home at Lancaster, Fairfield County, in the same State, where the eldest living member of the family now resides.

The Governor’s father, J. Kinkead, was a native of Chester County, Pennsylvania, of Scotch parentage; was married in Baltimore, Maryland, to a lady of German descent, where the elder members of the family were born. He was also an enlisted soldier and officer in the army of 1812, though not called into active service. Among the public works of those early days was the construction of a highway by the Government, known as the National Turnpike Road, that extended from Baltimore, Maryland, west, through the populous portions of the country, to Columbus, Ohio. It was projected to terminate at St. Louis, but never reached that point. The Governor’s father was a contractor in the building of that road, and moved along its line from Baltimore westward, first to Smithfield, then to Zanesville, as before mentioned, where his Connection with that enterprise ceased. The scholastic training to fit the subject of this sketch for the pursuits of life was not pursued into fields higher than were attainable in the Lancaster High School, an institute in that day under charge of the brothers Mark and John Howe, bearing a deservedly high reputation. His graduating educational degrees have been obtained under that practical and finished instructor only found in acquiring acknowledge of business and of men. At eighteen years of age he entered a wholesale dry goods establishment in St. Louis as a clerk, where he remained until his twenty-third year, when he crossed the plains in 1849, and established, in connection with J. M. Livingston, the pioneer mercantile house at Salt Lake City, known as Livingston & Kinkead.

In 1854 be removed to California, where, with his partners, a business was continued that consisted chiefly of buying, selling, and grazing stock. On the first of January, 1856, he was married at Marysville, California, to Miss Lizzie Fall, a daughter of John C. Fall, who now resides at Wilcox, Arizona. After his marriage, with the exception of one year spent in New York City in commercial business, he was interested in a mercantile establishment at Marysville, in connection with Mr. Fall, until 1861. In the fall of 1859 his firm established a branch house at Carson City, Nevada; and in February of 1860, moved there to take charge of the new enterprise, since when he has considered the Silver State his home, though occasionally absent, and at one time for over three years. His absence, just mentioned, was from 1867 to 1871, when he visited Alaska, and was one of the parties who went there to witness the act of transfer by the Russian Government of the home of the Esquimaux, the icebergs, and seals, to our Government. He was the first official appointed by the United States to any Governmental position in that country. It was tendered him, with a commission not quite as large as a bedspread, duly stamped with the national seal, on which could have been, but was not, written the ton commandments; his pay was to be twelve dollars per year, his occupation and title that of “P. M. ” (which is Postmaster).

As a business man, Governor Kinkead has been one of the most active in the country. In connection with his associates he built, in early times, the widely-known Mexican Quartz Mill, located at Empire City; located the pioneer town of Washoe City, and improved the water-power there; was one of the original projectors of the now Virginia and Truckee Railroad; built smelting works at Pleasant Valley, a mill in the cañon below Washoe City, and another at Austin; has been engaged in milling or mining in Ormsby, Washoe, Storey, Lander, Humboldt, and Esmeralda counties, in this State, in addition to his mercantile pursuits.

The Governor was Territorial Treasurer under Governor Nye, during the existence of the Territorial Government; was a member of both Constitutional Conventions convened for the purpose of creating a State Organization. Declining any further political advancement, he devoted himself to business pursuits, only emerging therefrom upon his nomination and election as Governor of his State in 1878. He is a gentleman in many respects of superior attainments, with a fair scholastic education; has read law, and traveled extensively in the United States and Territories. Officially he has shown himself to be industrious, honest, and capable. Socially he is suave and affable in his manner. He would address a prince with dignity, or treat a tramp courteously, and greets all with a kind word and genial pleasant smile, making every one whom he meets glad that Nevada’s Governor is a gentleman.

[History of Nevada, 1881, Thompson and West. Pages facing 24-25]