13 Facts About Moses Kinkaid

Moses Pierce Kinkaid was an American politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives from the state of Nebraska.

Moses Kinkaid was the sponsor of the 1904 Kinkaid Land Act, which allowed homesteaders to claim up to 640 acres of government land in western Nebraska.

Moses Kinkaid attended the public schools and graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1876.

Moses Kinkaid was admitted to the bar and practiced in Henry County, Illinois, from 1876 until 1880 and in Pierre, Dakota Territory in 1880 and 1881.

Moses Kinkaid served as an officer of the Holt County Bank from its foundation in 1884 until 1886.

Moses Kinkaid served in the state Senate in 1883, and as a district judge from 1887 to 1900.

In 1900, Moses Kinkaid unsuccessfully sought election to the US House of Representatives from Nebraska's Sixth District.

At the time that Moses Kinkaid entered Congress, the 1862 Homestead Act allowed settlers to obtain a quarter-section of government land for a nominal fee; the 1873 Timber Culture Act allowed them to claim an additional quarter-section.

The outcome of the Nebraska law led to the passage of the 1916 Stock-Raising Homestead Act, which extended many of the provisions of the Moses Kinkaid act to other Western states.

Moses Kinkaid held his Congressional seat as a Republican until his death.

Moses Kinkaid died in Washington, DC, on July 6,1922, shortly before the end of his tenth term in office.

Moses Kinkaid was buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery in O'Neill, Nebraska.

The Old Nebraska State Bank Building in O'Neill, in which Moses Kinkaid had his law office from 1884 until his death, is the Holt County Historical Museum.