John Cain (1800 - 1877)

Ancestors

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Biography

John was born in 1800. He was the son of Abijah Cain. He passed away in 1877. ^[1]

The following article appeared in The Attica [Indiana] Paper and was part of a series of articles written by John Milton McBroom on the "Early Settlement of Fountain Co., Hillsboro, Indiana in 1891. He wrote articles about the Beaver/Bever families; the McBroom families and the Cain families.

By John Milton McBroom:

"We will turn to another family or rather swarm of early settlers. These were the Cains. They came in droves. There were all kinds of Cains...good, bad and indifferent and so numerous it seemed they ran short of given names, so they had to attach an adjective to the given name to designate the one they meant. For instance, there was red-headed John, white-head, black-head and sandy-head and so on for quantity till the vocabulary of adjectives was exhausted, and still there were Cains left. So numerous were they that when the county and township were organized, they had the honor of giving names to tally, simply by force of numbers.[NOTE: the township was named Cain Township.] Upon the whole, they did much to clear out and improve the county and many of them were good people.

"Uncle Abijah Cain was a good old Methodist gentleman that brought to the county quite a drove of girls that were highly appreciated by the young men, and though there were not enough of them to go around and supply all the boys, still three of the Bever boys got wives, besides a McBroom, Dill, Spray, McLathalin [sic], Cain and others. [Here is some proof to Ingrid that Rachel Dill was another daughter of Abijah's!] [It also makes me (Vicki Bever Doze) think that the John Cain who married Elvira Cain was not Abijah's son and perhaps Elvira was his daughter!]

"They were good women and made excellent wives. But they served their day and generations and one by one passed away. The last of them, Aunt Barbara, wife of Joseph Bever, died about a year ago [this was written in 1891]at one of her daughters, away out in Kansas. She was a noble woman and lived to be over 80 years of age. Her father, Abijah Cain, settled the place now owned by Jas. Frazier [in 1891], long known as the Jos. Bever farm, and here was held the first Methodist Camp Meeting in the township, if not in the county, but losing stock by a strange disease, afterward known as milksick, he [Abijah] sold out for a song, and took to on time, to his son-in-law, Jos. Bever, and moved upon the edge of the prairie, where he improved another farm and upon which he and his wife [Martha Rodgers] died and were buried.

"Others now own the farm that knew not Joseph Bever or his brethern, and those graves almost unmarked are turned out in the stable yard to be trodden over by stock. But few now living know that such a man Abijah Cain ever lived and helped improve this (then wilderness) country. The Cains on the whole were quite a help to the settlement. They not only helped to clear the land but anything that was necessary to be done. One of them was a cabinet maker and did the first turning work done in the county. He threw a low dam across Coal Creek, just west of Hillsboro and rigged up a water power that turned his lathe. Here he made the first tables and bedsteads with turned legs, besides many other of the articles of much needed furniture, for the newcomers could bring but few of those things with them.

"The Cains were a roving migrating sect of people that enjoyed themselves best on the frontier. Hence, when the county became pretty well settled, they began to pull up and leave. They wanted more room. Some went to Wisconsin, some Illinois, others to Iowa and Kansas, so there are none now remaining in the county to perpetuate the name. The last to leave was Uncle John [Cain]. He stuck to the willows for sometime and would have staid [sic] on, but all his children had grown up and married, and one by one left him, moving to Kansas. So in his old age he sold his farm and followed them. He was a peculiar man; honest and industrious as the day is long. Always busy at something; a natural mechanic; a jack of all trades; could do anything that needed to be done. He was a farmer, shoemaker, potter, blacksmith, clock tinker, carpenter and millwright. He did all his own making and repairing, it wouldn't do to throw anything away; it must be repaired. The boys used to say that he would spend a whole day to drill a new eye in a darning needle rather than it should be lost. Besides he was a firm man. His firmness often took the shape of obstinancy. He loved a flax-break because it had a head of its own... So it goes with Uncle John [Cain]; he seldom changed his opinion. He would have things his own way. In religion he was a Methodist and in politics a Republican, and you might as well have tried to shake the eternal hills as change him on either one of these points. Thus he lived and died--soon to be forgotten by the busy throngs that came after him. But such is the history of man. 'Tis short and sad. We live, die and are forgotten.' Let this be engraven on our tombstone."

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Sources

No sources. The events of John's life were either witnessed by Norman Perry or Norman plans to add sources here later.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Entered by Norman Perry, Sunday, October 6, 2013.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Norman Perry for creating Cain-1636 on 6 Oct 13. Click the Changes tab for the details on contributions by Norman and others.