Biography

Cain was born in 1835.

Abraham Rasdell testified, "That he has one child named Cain a son begotten on the body of said Onck say onc ah that said child was three years old the fifteenth day of Jany last. that said child is smart and active, and residing with deponant at Four Lakes [in] the Wisconsin Territory." (Waggoner, 22b) This is quoted as it appears in the MS. The deposition was taken 21 Sept. 1838. Four Lakes is the site of Madison, Wisconsin.

Cain was one of the first pupils in the primitive frontier schoolhouse, the first of its kind erected in Madison: "In these limited quarters on the first of March, 1838, Miss Brayton assembled her little flock of some dozen or fifteen scholars. Among them were ... Cain Rasdall ... The benches were of oak slabs with the bark on, roughly whittled pegs driven into auger holes serving as legs." (Madison PS, 13)

Sources

• Linda M. Waggoner (ed.), “Neither White Men Nor Indians: Affidavits from the Winnebago Mixed-blood Claim Commissions, Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, 1838-1839” (Roseville, Minnesota: Park Genealogical Books, 2002). Extracted from Territorial Papers of the United States, Wisconsin, 1836-1848. M236. “Special Files of the Office of Indian Affairs,” 1836-46. “Special File 161” (Roll 41). “Special File 190” (Roll 42). National Archives, Washington D.C., Documents on Microfilm, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (Record Group 75).
• Madison Public Schools Report for 1885, and History from 1838 to 1885 (Madison: Madison Board of Education, 1886).
• Ann's Genealogy, RootsWeb.com, ID: I07236