An old cherry tree grows no more in Reidsville
Being a retired Methodist preacher, John Kincaid can not tell a lie. He chopped down the cherry tree. It was dead. He had no choice.
He seeks to be truthful, too, by adding conditions to the following claim: He can't prove it, but he's convinced the Monarch cherry tree in his yard was the oldest of its type in Rockingham County.
"I was told it was the oldest,'' he says. "I don't know of any other Monarch cherry that's older"
William Fillman probably planted the tree in 1870 when he built the house Kincaid now owns at Main and Woodrow streets, across from Annie Penn Hospital. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is in the Reidsville Historic District.
Kincaid and his late wife, Nancy, bought the house in 1997. Nancy Kincaid spent hours making drapes and doing other chores to make the house beautiful and inviting.
By Kincaid's count, the groomed yard contains 150 large box woods, two huge walnut trees, three pecan, two magnolias, two maples, four hollies, one crab apple, one Bradford pear, one oak, 12 white pines and one man-made water fall.
The setting and grounds are a contrast to the mill village where John Kincaid grew up in Greensboro.
He lost the cherry tree and now he must prepare to rid himself of the house and lawn. He has the property listed with a real estate agent. He hopes to rent a smaller house he's eyeing in Reidsville.
He doesn't need the big house anymore. Their children are grown. Her death in 2002 has left him alone there.
The house's furnishings come from the couple's travels and moving place to place when he was a circuit riding Methodist minister. He also was an official with the Christian Rural Overseas Program (Crop).
He has called on a Greensboro auctioneer to sell the house's contents. An auction date hasn't been set.
Before Kincaid became a Methodist minister, he pastored after World War II a non-denominational church on Franklin Boulevard in Greensboro. He and some helpers built the church, which still stands. Kincaid also built houses along Franklin Boulevard and some on Pisgah Church Road.
His life also includes five years as a mail carrier in the White Oak mill village, owned by Cone Mills.
"I had the longest mail route in Greensboro, Route 30," he says. "If I delivered mail to every house on the route during a day, I walked a total of 18 miles."
When the auction is held, the offerings won't include the cherry table.
It hasn't been built yet. Kincaid saved enough wood from the tree for a craftsman friend in Lake Lure to build the table. He may use the piece of furniture to write letters - he writes many - and to do other work.