After my mother, Bessie Inez Davison (nee Kincaid) passed away, my brother, Dale Davison, sent me a little gospel tract he found among her belongings that had been written by my grandfather, Charles J. Kincaid, entitled “Why should I be a Baptist?”

My grandparents, Charles Jones and Pearl Mary Kincaid (nee Collis), lived in Saint Louis, Missouri. They had moved there from Etewah, Tennessee where my mother was born. My grandmother was born on February 23, 1894 and died on June 12, 1945. They are buried at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Saint Louis.

My grandfather supported his family of five children as a janitor at White Rogers. Although he had only a primary school education, mother said he had educated himself with a dictionary and his Bible. He did some preaching.

Charles and Pearl were married on November 2, 1912 in Polk County, Tennessee. They had five children: Flora (1914), Bessie (1920), John (1922), Charles (1924) and Earl (1925), Charles J. junior died on November 6, 1937 at the age of 13 from an infected foot injury. Penicillin probably would have saved his life, but although it was discovered in 1928 it was not used to treat infections until 1942.

I do not remember my mother’s parents. My grandfather died on June 11, 1943 at the age of 54 when I was two years old. He died of a head injury after being knocked down by an angry fellow worker. Because his assailant was a “union man” the other workers were afraid to testify against him.

My grandmother passed away two years later, on June 12, 1945 at the age of 51 after having a stroke and being hospitalized for eight weeks. It was during the war and we lived in Florida, so although I was four by then, I had not been able to visit her since I was two.

Although I don’t remember my grandparents, through their influence my mother, and later my father became Christians, which of course had a great impact on my life as well.

When I was 23 I visited the Central Church of Christ in Saint Louis where my grandparents had attended. I spoke with an elderly brother who remembered my grandparents. He said they had beaufiful voices and sang duets at area-wide singings.

It gives me great pleasure to publish this little tract and a poem written by my grandfather!

Roy Davison
2016