Talk:John Henry Kinkead

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A fact from John Henry Kinkead appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 30 July 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Nevada Governor John Henry Kinkead (pictured) was the first United States official to hold office in Alaska?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/July.

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[[List of Governors of Alaska#Commanders of Department of Alaska .281868.E2.80.931884.29|Commander]]

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Untitled[edit]

If anyone is paying attention over here: while I haven't come across it directly, apparently the autobiography of Samuel Hall Young mentions Kinkead in very unflattering terms. Hall described Kinkead as an alcoholic "as evidenced by his bulbous nose" who shipped large quantities of whiskey labeled as "tomatoes" to Sitka, and that his sole report made as governor (which was required annually of governors in those days) was the only evidence existing that he even served in the position. I have come across a copy of that report (which I believe was published along with the report of the governor of the Oklahoma Territory and perhaps other territories), but I just glanced over it. If I recall, in the very earliest days of the territory, most federal officials stayed in Sitka only during the summer, leaving south on the last boat of the season.

Which leads me to the other part of it. Hall described Samuel Ward McAllister, Jr., the District's first appointed federal judge, as a crony of Kinkead who was similarly situated. I'm not sure much is known of McAllister, other than perhaps in direct relation to his more famous father. Here's what was published in his entry in Who's Who in Alaskan Politics:

U.S. dist. judge, Sitka, July 5, 1884 – Aug. 28, 1885; held only one ct. session in Sitka, fall 1884, leaving terr. immediately thereafter; summarily suspended, July 21, 1885; vacated office, Aug. 28, 1885; sued U.S. govt. for salary due until expiration of appointment, Sept. 6, 1886; U.S. Supreme Ct. disallowed claim (McAllister vs U.S., 141 U.S., 174, 23 Stat. 24, chapter 58)

Hope this helps. I think that Hall's autobiography was published during the 1920s, but I haven't looked for more information on it.RadioKAOS (talk) 23:00, 4 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Having worked on a number of biographies dealing with late-19th century political leaders of U.S. territories it comes as no surprise that a variety of strongly worded accusations about Governor Kinkead exist. The article mentions a dispute between the governor and Sheldon Jackson and that is probably the cause of many of the accusations. Even without the dispute, journalism standards were quite different from today with vicious claims and outright lies were commonly printed by the newspapers of the day (frequently following a financial contribution to the editor).

That being said, there could be an element of truth to the claims. It was not unusual for territorial officials to leave their territory for either personal leave (many did not move their homes and families from "civilized" areas to the remote locations where they held office) or official business. Also, during his first stay in Alaska Kinkead operated a trading post and thus had good reason to periodically import supplies of whiskey and other desirable trade goods. --Allen3 ^talk 23:56, 4 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]