The town of Kincaid came to be on the prairies of North Dakota in the summer of 1899 for the same reason many towns came to be late in the 19th century in this part of the world. The steam engines that rumbled along the tracks pushing further into the northwest needed water every ten miles or so, and the location that was to be Kincaid was in fact ten miles or so to the west and ten miles or so to the east of the next town.

As was common in those times of westward expansion, the railroad, like a proud new parent, generally named the towns it was responsible for the creation of along its iron family tree. Kincaid was named after Charles James Kincaid, an important and wealthy executive of the Northwest Railroad Company of Chicago, IL. Important, as a result of his wealth, and wealthy as a result of his father.

Charles’ father, Arthur, and his twin brothers, Leo and Lester, had the fortune; some would say dumb luck, of being part of the expansion of the Northwest Railroad Company. Their dumb luck was that each of the three brothers had bought adjacent 2,000-acre parcels of land west of Chicago with plans of filling the land with cattle and becoming great cattle barons. Actually, it was Arthur who bought the land and had the grand idea of becoming a cattle baron, Leo and Lester never really ever had any grand ideas.

Leo and Lester were born six years before Arthur, but Arthur never met either of them until he was 10 years old. Their mother, Willamina dropped Leo and Lester off at the “Illinois State School for the Moronic and Feebleminded,” shortly after her husband, Eldridge, went out for a walk and apparently forgot how to get home. Eldridge’s running off didn’t come as much of a surprise to Willamina for she knew how hard it was on Eldridge, a man of good strong German stock, to face up to the fact he had fathered two imbeciles.

What Eldridge didn’t know was that Willamina was about four months pregnant at the time of his extended walk. He also was unaware that he wasn’t the father of the son he didn’t know his wife was pregnant with, so it’s probably just as well that he kept on walking.

It would have been hard for Willamina to explain why the baby appeared to be of slightly darker complexion, similar to that of the man who did such a nice job painting their house about four months previous, while she and Eldridge were of obvious lily white descent.

Luther came highly recommended as a dandy painter by several of Willamina’s friends she played bridge with every Wednesday afternoon. Willamina knew it must be true because Mrs. Fallon hired Luther to paint her house three times last year, and Mrs. Jeffrey’s insisted Luther paint her fence every single month, with weekly touch ups in between. That Luther could paint all day.

So, Willamina unable to handle the demands of the twins and a new baby all on her own made the heart wrenching decision to leave the upbringing of Leo and Lester to the state of Illinois. That turned out to be more than enough for one state to handle. Trying to educate Leo and Lester proved to be as futile as members of the 7th Cavalry applying lip balm during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It just didn’t matter. They weren’t stupid, they were crazy and preferred it that way.

The employees of the Illinois State School for the Moronic and Feebleminded never celebrated the 16th birthday of any of those in their care with as much jubilation and outright joy as Leo and Lester’s. At the age of 16 they could be released with the Illinois State School for the Moronic and Feebleminded stamp of approval that they were indeed fit to enter society. Whether they were fit for society or society was fit for them remains of question, either way they were going home.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious and the result of an overactive imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.