Minerd.com Biography of James and Mariah (Morley) Cain of Wetzel County, WV

James Cain (1785-1853?) and
Mariah Morley (1791-1881)

James Cain was born in about 1785 in Greene County, PA. The identity of his parents is not known.

Mariah Morley was born in about 1791 in either Baltimore, MD or in Pennsylvania, and came to Western Pennsylvania in girlhood. Some researchers identify her parents as Joseph and Mary (Hardesty) Morley, but this needs to be confirmed. A census-taker in 1850 gave her birthplace as Maryland and her age as 45 meaning she would have been born in 1805, a 14-year discrepancy not yet untangled.

They were united in matrimony, allegedly on March 28, 1831 in nearby Ohio County, WV (then part of Virginia). If so, James would have been age 46 and Mariah 40. Perhaps it was a second marriage for both. Or perhaps this date is incorrect. Some researchers have said she was a step-mother to some of her husband's children.

The dozen known Cain children were John Cain, Sarah Earlywine, Joseph Cain, Grace "Gracy" McCardle, Lucrece Cain, Catherine Earlywine, Mary Calvert, William Cain, James Cain Jr., Nancy Calvert McDowell, David F. Cain, Amy Baker and Absolum "Titus" Cain. Three of their six eldest children married into the Earlywine family, one of the earliest settlers in the Ohio River Valley wilderness of the 1760s.

The Cains owned a farm of 88 acres, 105 poles located along Lynn Camp Run, straddling the Marshall and Wetzel County border of the northern panhandle of Virginia (later West Virginia). James bought several farms to compile this acreage from sellers John Simmons, David Venns and Hugh McDowell. Thus over the years, census-takers alternately recorded the Cain family as living in one county or the other.

View of the Ohio River from the top of Grave Creek Mound, 1851

Their farm was about 17 miles as-the-crow-flies inland from the Ohio River, about 27 twisting, turning miles from the Marshall County seat of Moundsville and about 18 miles from the Wetzel County seat of New Martinsville. Moundsville reached world fame famed as the home of the ancient prehistoric Grave Creek Mound. The 62-foot-high earthen mound, 240 feet in diameter, was built between 250 BC and 150 BC by the Adena nation and was a tourist attraction after its original discovery by a European traveler in the 1770s. In 1803, explorer Meriwether Lewis noted the largest of the mounds in his journal as he and his Corps of Discovery pushed westward on the Ohio River as they began the Lewis and Clark expedition.

When the federal census was taken in 1850, the Cains resided in District 33 of Marshall County. James was marked as a farmer. Six of their children lived under their roof, with their sons Joseph and William dwelling next door in homes of their own.

John is believed to have died in Wetzel County on Feb. 5, 1853, at the age of 68, terminating their marriage of 22 years. This needs to be confirmed.

In August 1867, some time after James’ death, his adult children appeared before local justice of the peace Hezekiah McDowell to acknowledge that they had signed a deed several months earlier transferring ownership of the family farm to their brother David Cain, for the sum of $2,058. The entire 88-acre tract was now owned by David except for an 11-acre parcel to be returned to Simmons and a share to be reserved for Jane Bowman, one of James’ heirs. The document today is on file in the Wetzel County courthouse in New Martinsville.

Mariah is reputed to have passed away on Oct. 31, 1881 in Wetzel County. If so, she would have been 90 years of age.

Son John Cain (1815-1875) was born in about 1815, the eldest of his parents' 13 known children. He married Ann Elizabeth Earlywine (1816-1873), daughter of Jacob and Catherine Earlywine. View their biography for more.

Daughter Sarah Cain (1821- ? ) was born in about 1821. She learned neither to read or write.

On Oct. 11, 1841, when she was age 20, she wed 27-year-old Abraham Earlywine (1814-1899). The identity of his parents is unknown, but he surely was a namesake of Abraham Earlywine, the German immigrant and pioneer settler of the Ohio River Valley between Wheeling and Moundsville.

They had six known children – Mariah Richmond, Jacob Earlywine, Joseph F. Earlywine, John Earlywine, Samuel Earlywine and Catherine Earlywine.

When the federal census enumeration was made in 1850, they dwelled in District 33 of Marshall County. During the Civil War, their son Joseph served in the 17th West Virginia Infantry.

Their home in 1867 was in Wetzel County. At his father’s death in 1867, Abraham was named in the will and was to have inherited $30 from the estate.

Death records for Abraham are conflicting. One source places his death near Middlebourne, Tyler County, WV on July 7, 1899, at age 85. Another gives his death date of July 10, 1899 at the county infirmary. No obituary has been found for him in the Moundsville Daily Echo.

Daughter Mariah Earliwine (1843-1928) was born in about 1843. She married Silas Richmond (1839-1918). He was a veteran of the Civil War. The couple produced these known children -- Mary Ann Richmond, Sarah Isabel Richmond, Hiram Spencer Richmond, Francis Wesley Richmond and Perry Wilson Richmond. They resided in nearby Tyler County, WV. Silas died on Sept. 11, 1918. Mariah outlived him by a decade. She passed on Dec. 2, 1928. Burial was in the Middlebourne Cemetery in Tyler County. [Find-a-Grave]

Son Joseph F. Earliwine (1845- ? ) was born in about 1845. He served in the Union Army’s 17th West Virginia Infantry during the Civil War.

Son John Earliwine (1847-1919) was born on Jan. 17, 1847 (or 1849) in Marshall County. As a youth growing up in Wetzel County, he joined the Baptist Church and remained a member for the rest of his life. On March 27, 1872, when he was 25 years old, he married Sarah Lancaster ( ? - ? ). The couple produced four children, of whom two died in infancy and two survived to adulthood – Ruth Ellen West and Lucy J. Hawkins. They were farmers and resided in Bridgeway, Tyler County, where John was said to have been an “aged and well known citizen….” He died in mid-October 1919, at the age of 69, with burial in Greenwood Cemetery. G.W. Hawkins of Paden City was the informant for his death certificate, and an obituary was printed in the Tyler County Journal. Find-a-Grave.

Son Samuel Earliwine (1848- ? ) was born in about 1848. He may have died young, as he does not appear on the 1850 census, when he would have been two years old.

Son Joseph Cain Sr. (1822-1864) was born in about 1822 in Greene County, PA. As a boy he migrated west over the state line into the northern panhandle of Virginia, settling on or near the Wetzel/Marshall County border.

On Oct. 7, 1841, at the age of 19, Joseph married 18-year-old Margaret Hickman (1823-1882). Rev. Edward Dowler officiated at the ceremony. They lived next to his parents in Marshall County's 33rd District in 1850 when the census was taken.

The Cains had these nine children – David Cain, Nancy Ann Boyd, Joseph Cain Jr., Albert A. Cain, Alvira Ellen Cain, James Edward Cain, Maria Emily Cain, Mary Martha Miller and Jennetta McDowell.

At the births of some of the children, family friends Maria Burge, Elizabeth May and Lydia Simmons were in attendance and assisted as midwives.

A little more than two years after the Civil War began, Joseph made the decision to join the Union Army. He enrolled on July 8, 1863 at Bellton, Marshall County and then traveled to Clarksburg, WV, where he was assigned to the 4th West Virginia Cavalry, Company L, under the command of Capt. John S. McDonald. His term of service was to have been six months. While he received regular pay from the Army, he was overdrawn on the government allowance for clothing in the amount of $2. 60.

On Jan. 30, 1864, he went missing from his regiment when captured in action at Medley Farm, WV. From there, he was sent to the notorious Andersonville Prison in Georgia. While at Andersonville, a little more than two months later, he starved to death on April 2 or 3, 1864, when he was 42 years of age. Burial was in the prison cemetery, in grave no. 323.

Back at home, his family received no word of his circumstances. They believed him to have been killed at Medley. It apparently took several years for the truth to become known.

Above: emaciated Union prisoners at Andersonville. Below: "crawling to the swamp for water" and "driven to madness." Harper's Weekly, 1865.

Now widowed with young mouths to feed, Margaret petitioned the federal government for a military pension as compensation for her husband's wartime death. The application was submitted on Jan. 27, 1866 and was approved in the amount of $8 per month. [App. #119.980 - Cert. #70105]. At the time, her post office was Bellton, Marshall County.

She thus drew a monthly government payment for the remaining 25 years of her life. During that time, she had to provide continual care for their daughter Maria Emily who had been born with serious birth defects and never matured into a responsible adult.

Margaret died on May 7 or 8, 1893 at the age of 60. A decade or so later, in the early weeks of January 1892. On Jan. 28, 1892, an application was filed so that one or more of her offspring, still legally dependent, could receive the pension. It was not approved. Some years later, after a re-application, the pension was awarded to their youngest daughter. [Minor App. #539.297, Cert. # 888.301]

Joseph's legacy might today be otherwise forgotten, but for the heroic private action of an Andersonville POW named Dorrence Atwater. It was Atwater's job at the camp to keep an official list of the 13,000 names of the dead and their precise burial sites which were in very shallow trenches. Despite the extreme conditions, he managed to maintain a secret duplicate copy which he stored in the lining of his coat. Wrote famed Civil War nurse and American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, "Day by day he watched the long trenches fill with the naked skeletons of the once sturdy Union Blue, -- the pride of the American Armies, -- and day by day, he traced on the great brown pages of his Confederate sheet record, the last, and all that was ever to be known of the brave dead sleepers in their crowded, coffinless beds, -- the name, company, regiment, disease, date of death, and number of grave." At the war's end, he shared the list with Barton who in turn advised the Secretary of War. At his order, Atwater, Barton, Army Assistant Quartermaster James Moore and a team of painters and carpenters traveled to the prison site in the heat of the Georgia summer, exhuming the bodies, placing them in proper caskets, reburying them in deeper graves and conducting Christian funeral services. Each grave was marked with headboards, and she wrote dozens of letters to grieving families to let them know of their soldier's fate. With the project complete, a dedication ceremony was held on Aug. 17, 1865, where she was invited to raise the American flag. She wrote: "Then I saw the little graves marked, blessed them for the heartbroken mother in the old Northern home, raised over them the flag they loved, and died for, and left them to their rest. And there they lie to-night, apart from all they loved, but mighty in their silence, teaching the world a lesson of human cruelty it had never learned...."

Son David W. Cain (1842- ? ) was born in about 1842 in Marshall County. At the age of 24, on June 10, 1866, he married 18-year-old Lavina Morris (1846- ? ), daughter of William and Anne Maria Morris of Washington County, PA. The ceremony took place in nearby Aleppo Township, Greene County, PA by the hand of Adam Wise. David was a longtime farmer.

Son James Edward Cain (1855-1938) was born on June 3 or 4, 1855 in Marshall County. At his birth, family friends Elizabeth May and Lydia Simmons attended and assisted as midwives. He was but nine years of age when his father died as a prisoner of war during the Civil War. He was married and lived in Jacksonburg, Wetzel County, where he farmed for a living. Stricken with kidney failure, he endured the illness for three years until his death on Jan. 21, 1938 at the age of 82. His remains were placed into rest in the Cain Cemetery. Nettie Beckett of Jacksonburg was the informant for his death certificate. (In that document, the maiden name of James' mother was incorrectly given as "Russell" instead of "Hickman.")

Daughter Maria Emily Cain (1856-1926) was born on Dec. 2, 1856 in Denver, Marshall County. Her name also has been spelled "Mariah" in old records. While a medium-size baby at birth, she came into this world with birth defects of the spine and limbs. At the age of three, she fell down a flight of stairs, "and, if not crippled before, was injured at that time," wrote a physician. "Relatives say she was never able to walk well alone." After her mother's death in 1882, Maria was taken into the home of her elder brother James Edward Cain, initially in Marshall County. Now orphaned, she was awarded her late father's monthly pension payments from the federal government. At the age of 16, her brother James reported that "she could not perform the duties expected of a girl of her age and in attending school she had to be led to and from school and made no progress whatever in learning: that at that age, she was not employed in any work and did not perform any work whatever except the most trivial tasks without any practical value to any one." She stood five feet, six inches tall and weighed 120 lbs. as an adult, with brown eyes, dark hair and a light complexion. At the age of 28, she moved with her brother's family to Jacksonburg, Wetzel County. When she was examined in October 1919, at the age of 63, the physician reported:

...she has a complete cataract over the left eye and partial cataract over the right eye and that her vision is consequently very poor. She has almost constant tremor of head and shoulders, is very pale, probably due to her confinement for most of the time for years in the house. She gets ver ylittle exercise. She has a bent an ankylosed knee joints... Talks very poorly, cannot enunciate her words plainly, very fair throat, all upper teeth out, as are many of lower teeth, bowels regular, skin pale but clean and free of any disease except possibly an anaemia that appears to be general. Heart regular but feeble. Last spring she had a short illness, which her guardian's family considered Acute Indigestion, due to eating some improper food, but soon recovered her normal condition.

Family friends Amanda Barr, Francis M. Willey and John Riobert Calvert testified that Maria was "getting worse" over time. She is believed to have received nursing services from her niece Nettie Cain. Her brother and guardian, frustrated with the slowness of the federal bureaucracy, wrote repeatedly to the Bureau of Pensions in Washington, DC, hoping to secure payment increases for his sister. In 1920, when she was interviewed by government investigators, they observed that she was "not mentally capable of talking intelligently or of giving intelligent answers to questions" and labeled her as an "imbecile." By 1926, her monthly pension payments totaled $26. Suffering from physical disability and old age, she died at the age of 69 on April 25, 1926. Interment was in the Cain Cemetery in Pine Grove, Wetzel County.

Daughter Mary Martha Cain (1859-1919) was born on Dec. 4 or 5, 1859 in Marshall County. At Martha's birth, her mother was assisted by friend and midwife Lyda Simmons. When she was age 21, on Oct. 11, 1881, Martha married 23-year-old Wetzel County native Jefferson Miller (1858-1940). He was the son of Isaac and Sarah (Carney) Miller. The ceremony was performed by Rev. George Franklin and held at the home of Mary's widowed mother. The Millers lived in Silver Hill, Wetzel County. They had five known children -- Willard Miller, Willis I. Miller, Dora E. Pyles, Jennetta M. Miller and Inez Olive Long. The family grieved when son Willard apparently died when he was about two and a half years of age in the 1880s. Heartache again rocked the family in the mid-summer of 1907. Their unmarried son Willis, a laborer, contracted typhoid fever and the Grim Reaper swept him away on Aug. 22, 1907 a few weeks before his 26th birthday. His remains were placed into the earth in the Miller plot in Jolliffe Cemetery in Silver Hill. Suffering from tuberculosis, Mary died just a month shy of her 60th birthday, on Nov. 12, 1919. Burial was in the Jolliffe Cemetery. Jefferson survived his wife by more than two decades. He died on Nov. 8, 1940, but his details are not yet discovered. Red barre granite stones mark their graves.

Daughter Jennetta Cain (1863- ? ) was born on May 17 or 18, 1863 in Marshall County. At Jennetta's birth, her mother was assisted by friends and midwives Maria Burge and Elizabeth May. She married (?) McDowell ( ? - ? ).

Daughter Grace “Gracy” Cain (1823- ? ) was born in about 1823. She may well be the same woman as "Lugrace" Cain shown living in her parents' household on Oct. 25, 1850, when she was age 26, unmarried and could not read or write.

On Nov. 7, 1850, just a few weeks after the census was taken, Grace was united in marriage with 27-year-old John N. McCardle (1823- ? ). David Anguish officiated.

They established a farm dwelling in Marshall County and in 1860 lived next door to Gracy’s married but ill-fated sister Amy and her husband George W. Baker.

The McCardles’ known children were Maria McCardle, Rhoda McCardle, Lucy A. McCardle and John S. McCardle.

In 1850, at the age of 26, she was unmarried and lived at home with her parents.

Daughter Catharine Cain (1825?-1902) was born on or about Aug. 30, 1825 (or 1826).

Daughter Mary "Polly" Cain (1826-1918) was born on Nov. 17, 1826 in Marshall County, WV.

On March 25, 1852, in Wetzel County, she married Albert Gallatin Calvert (1829-1908). He was the brother of Isaac Calvert (1834- ? ), both sons of Thomas C. and Elizabeth (Johnson) Calvert of Tyler County, who was married to Mary's younger sister Nancy.

They were farmers in Wetzel County and produced these known children -- Samantha "Jane" Minor, James C. Calvert, twins Mary Beck Calvert and Mary Birch Calvert, Elias Sylvester Calvert, John E. Calvert, David Webster C. Calvert, Thomas James Calvert, Hampton Lee Calvert and Dora Simmons.

Sadly, a number of their offspring died young. Son James C. died at age one year, six months in September 1855, in Lynn Camp -- twin daughters Mary Beck and Mary Birch from "fits" at age six months on Oct. 1, 1858 -- and son Elias of the bloody flux on Oct. 16, 1865.

The 1870 federal census of Wetzel County's Proctor District shows the family, including five children, residing on a farm. Albert is said to have been elected to the legislature of West Virginia for two terms in 1876 and 1878. He also served as a local justice of the peace and a Wetzel County school trustee. Albert is profiled in the book West Virginia Counties, and or History of Wetzel County, by H.H. Hardesty.

She died on May 13, 1918, at the age of 91 years, five months and 26 days. She was laid to rest on their home farm. An obituary in the Wetzel Democrat spelled her maiden name "Cane" and reported that she had "36 grandchildren living."

Daughter Samantha "Jane" Calvert (1853-1929) was born on March 1, 1853. She is believed to have married twice. Her first spouse was (?) Prewett ( ? - ? ). Their three children, born between 1873 and 1881, were Robert G. Prewett, William N. Prewitt and Friend B. Prewett. By 1918, she married again to (?) Daniel Morran (sometimes misnamed "Minor") and lived in Moundsville. She died of a stroke at age 77 on Feb. 5, 1929 and is buried in Moundsville's Greenlawn Cemetery. Son R.G. Prewitt signed the death certificate. [Find-a-Grave]

Son John Ewing Calvert (1856-1906) was born on April 30, 1856. He married Martha Lemasters, daughter of Isaac and Christina (Criss) Lemasters. He died on New Year's Day 1906, reputedly after a fight at an oil well rig, or in a barroom. Burial was in Calvert Cemetery.

Son David Webster C. Calvert (1859-1945) was born on Dec. 2, 1859. In 1880, he married Elizabeth Simmons (1861-1929), daughter of Elias and Nancy Anne (Reed) Simmons. They were farmers and resided in the community of West in the Proctor District of Wetzel County. Elizabeth "dropped dead" on Oct. 5, 1929, with Mrs. J.B. Pyles providing details for the death certificate. Felled by acute heart failure, he died just 10 days shy of his 86th birthday on Nov. 22, 1945 in Wetzel County. Vance Calvert signed the certificate of death. Interment was in Mt. Joy Cemetery on Pleasant Ridge, Wetzel County.

Son Thomas J. Calvert (1862-1940) was born on May 6, 1862, during the early years of the Civil War,. Thomas was a farmer in and around Cameron. He was married but later divorced. On Jan. 30, 1940, at age 77, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. His brother H.L. Calvert of Silver Hill provided details for the death certificate. Burial was in Calvert Cemetery.

Son Hampton "Lee" Calvert (1868-1948) was born on Nov. 7, 1868 in West, Wetzel County. He was a self-employed farmer and made his home in New Martinsville, Wetzel County in 1918. At age 80, on Oct. 14, 1948, he died of a heart attack. Burial was in Calvert Cemetery.

Daughter Dora Calvert (1870-1961) was born on Nov. 21, 1870 in Wetzel County. On Feb. 2, 1895, at the home of Rev. Solomon Furbee of the Christian Church, the 23-year-old Dora was wedded to 28-year-old Robert E. Lee Simmons ( ? - ? ). In 1918, they lived in Howard near Cameron, Marshall County, and apparently remained there for decades. At the age of 90, Dora fell and dislocated her shoulder, followed by a heart attack, and passed into eternity in Wheeling's Ohio Valley Hospital on June 9, 1961. Her remains were placed into eternal repose in Mt. Joy Cemetery near Cameron.

When he was 20 years of age, he lived next door to his parents in Marshall County’s 33rd District, and earned a living as a laborer. He married Catherine King (1831-1869).

They produced these known or suspected children – Lutitia Jacobs Kessel Stewart, Christina Halley Gray, Jasper Mayer Cain, Mariah Cain, Delilah Cain, Laban Hill Cain and Richard Beattie Cain.

William married again to Mary Hersman (or “Herdman”) (1834-1892). Mary came to her death in 1892, at the age of 58.

William died in Leon, Mason County on Aug. 28, 1900, at the age of 70. Burial was in the Smith Church Cemetery in Leon.

Daughter Lutitia Cain (1854-1926) was born on Jan. 14, 1854. Her name also has been spelled “Lutisha.” She was thrice married. Her first husband was John Jacobs ( ? -1890), a native of Wetzel County. They lived in Mason County and had at least one son, Laban Cain Jacobs, born in 1877. John is believed to have died of tuberculosis on Sept. 20, 1890, in Stephens, Mason County, while only in his 30s. Her second spouse was (?) Kessel. The couple produced one daughter, Edna Pearl Sullivan, born in 1892. Kessel’s story is lost to history for now. Marrying a third time, Lutitia was joined in matrimony with widower George Stewart (1830-1918), who was nearly a quarter of a century her senior in age. The son of William and Mary (Parsons) Stewart, George was an old Civil War veteran, a former member of the 13th West Virginia Infantry, Company B. Married once before, he brought seven adult children to the marriage with our Lutitia. George died on March 21, 1918, at the age of 88. Burial was in Smith Church Cemetery. Inscribed on his prominent grave marker was this epitaph: “Kind father of love, thou art Gone to thy rest, forever to bask ‘mid the joys of the blest.” Lutitia lived for another eight years after becoming a widow for a third time. Suffering from nephritis, she died on May 22, 1926 at the age of 72. Interment was in the Smith Church Cemetery where her parents rest for eternity. L.C. Jacobs of Leon was the informant for her death certificate.

Daughter Christina Halley Cain (1856-1941) was born in about 1856. She married (?) Gray. She died of pneumonia at the age of 85 in Capehart, Mason County on Jan. 23, 1941. Burial was in the Gray Cemetery.

Son Jasper Mayer Cain (1858-1940) was born on Sept. 21, 1858. He married his first wife, Virginia May Knapp (1860-1905) in Mason County on Nov. 9, 1879. They had one known daughter, Viola Frances Morrison. Sadly, Virginia died in 1905. He married again to Eva J. (Sargent) French (1869-1937) on Aug. 2, 1906. They lived in Vinton, Gallia County, OH. He died in Vinton on April 12, 1940. He is buried with his second wife in the Vinton Memorial Park.

Son Richard Beattie Cain (1867-1960) was born on Nov. 16, 1867 in Mason County. He married Susan Virginia Knapp (1867-1949) in Mason County in 1889, and they moved to Barberton, Summit County, OH. Their children were James t. Cain, Mary Margaret Sayre, Willie Almira Straight, Moses W. Cain, Rosa M. Moore, Samantha Ellen Stewart, Lura E. Moore Davis and George R. Cain. Richard died on Sept. 30, 1960, with interment in Obetz Cemetery in Franklin County, OH.

Daughter Delilah E. Cain (1870-1935) was born on Nov. 28, 1870. She married farmer Benjamin H. King (1873-1936), son of Nicholas and (?) (Good) King. They made their home in Buffalo, Putnam County, WV. The couple’s children were Jasper M. King, Francis King and Dewey King. Delilah passed away in Buffalo at age 64 on May 2, 1935. Burial was in Walker Chapel Cemetery in Robertsburg, Putnam County. Suffering from heart failure, without care from any physician, Benjamin died the following year on Aug. 16, 1936. Son Jasper signed his father’s death certificate.

Grandson Laben Hill Cain (1865-1953) was born on June 11, 1865 in Mason County. He was married and apparently had a family. The Cains were longtime farmers in rural Leon, Mason County. At the age of 88, Laben died of hemiplegia on Oct. 12, 1953. Entombment was in the Smith Church Cemetery. Mrs. Christen McClure was the informant for his West Virginia certificate of death.

At the age of 21, on Sept. 14, 1854, he wed 24-year-old Rhoda Young (1830-1885). She was the daughter of Jacob and Naomi Young. The Cain and Young families were close, and James’ brother David married Rhoda’s sister Mary.

Their four known children were Jacob Jefferson Cain, John S. Cain, Margaret J. Cain and Andrew Cain.

They were lifelong farmers and resided in the 1850s on Pleasant Ridge, Marshall County and also at some point on Wayman’s Ridge. In 1850. the United States Census shows them living next door to James' widowed sister Nancy Calvert near the post office of Adaline.

Stricken with consumption (tuberculosis), Rhoda died at the age of 55 on Sept. 2, 1885, in Wetzel County.

James is said to have died in 1920 and to be buried in the graveyard of Wayman’s Ridge Methodist Church, facts which need to be confirmed.

Jefferson Street, Moundsville, WV

Son Jacob Jefferson Cain (1855-1923) was born on July 14, 1855 on Pleasant Ridge, Marshall County. He was a lifelong farmer. He married Ruth Johnson ( ? - ? ) and had six known children – William Cain, Lindsay E. Cain, Mrs. B.I. Rulong, Meta Pyles, Belle McCardle and Mrs. Ira Mason. In about 1919, he began to suffer a type of tuberculosis of the lungs which would last for four years and claim his life. He spent his final years under the roof of his daughter Mrs. Ira Mason on Walnut Avenue in Moundsville. He died there at the age of 67 on May 12, 1923. His funeral was held at Blair’s Ridge Methodist Episcopal Church, followed by burial in the church cemetery. An obituary in the Moundsville Echo said that he was survived by 22 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Some 70 years after his death, in 1993, Jacob’s obituary was reprinted in the book Tri-County Obituary Collection by Linda Goddard Stout.

Great grandson William L. Cain (1910-1944) was born in 1910. He married Martha Baker ( ? - ? ) and had a son Norwood Cain. William served in the U.S. Army during World War II with the 331st Infantry, 83rd Division. Tragically, he was killed in France at the age of 34 on July 5, 1944, just a month after D-Day. His remains were initially buried in Europe, but in about 1958 were repatriated to the United States. A military funeral was held with burial in the Jolliffe Cemetery in Silver Hill.

Great-grandson Forest Clyde Cain (1913-1942) -- sometimes spelled as "Foster" -- was born on May 30, 1913 in Marshall County. At the age of 24, on Dec. 5, 1937, he married Margaret Miller ( ? - ? ), daughter of Harry Miller. They dwelled on a farm at Fish Creek near Cameron and produced one daughter, Mary Cain. Stricken with an intestinal ulcer lasting for four years, with a rupture and peritonitis occurring in the winter of 1942, Forest died at home at the age of 28 in on Jan. 8, 1942. Rev. Irvin Green of Bethany College officiated at the funeral held at Harry Miller's residence, with burial following in the Jolliffe Cemetery.

Son Andrew Cain (1867-1943) was born on Dec. 20, 1867 at Lynn Camp, Marshall County. At the age of 24, on Aug. 4, 1892, he married Martha E. Showalter ( ? - ? ), with the ceremony taking place in Littleton, Wetzel County. The couple had these 10 known children -- Curtis Cain, Homer Cain, Fred Cain, Blair Cain, Mrs. Howerd Miser, Russell Cain, Floyd Cain, Willard Cain, Friend Cain and Harry Cain. At some point, the family relocated to a farm in Scio, Harrison County, OH. Andrew died at home at the age of 70 on Christmas Day 1943. Burial was in Perrysville, OH at the local United Brethren Cemetery. A newspaper reported that he was survived by 19 grandchildren.

Daughter Nancy Cain (1835-1927) was born on Oct. 11, 1835 at Wolf Run, near Littleton, Wetzel County.

On April 17, 1856, in Marshall County, when she was age 21, she married Isaac Calvert (1834- ? ), son of Thomas C. and Elizabeth Calvert of Tyler County. David Anguish officiated at the nuptials, as he had done with Nancy's sister Grace McCardle six years earlier.

The couple produced two children – James C. Calvert and Matilda Richmond. Their home was in Wetzel County.

Isaac’s fate is not yet known, but he is believed to have died by 1860. The federal census of 1860 shows Nancy at the age of 25 heading a household with her two young children in Marshall County and living next door to her married brother and sister in law, James and Rhoda (Young) Cain.

On Sept. 4, 1865, when she was 35, Nancy married again, to 73-year-old farmer David McDowell ( ? - ? ), a widower who had been born in Lancaster County, PA. He was the son of John and Catherine McDowell, and the father of the Cains’ neighbor Hezekiah McDowell. The ceremony took place in Mead Township, Marshall County. Astoundingly, the groom was almost 40 years older than the bride.

They made their home on Pleasant Ridge in the Mead District of Marshall County and produced three children of their own – Virginia McDowell, Sarah McDowell and Alcrippa McDowell.

Not surprisingly, Nancy was made a widow during the 1870s and in the year 1880 headed a household with her three daughters from the second marriage, and her married daughter Matilda Richmond and family dwelling next door.

Suffering from old age, she died at the age of 91 on March 24, 1927. Lewis Richmond of Kausooth, Marshall County signed the death certificate.

Son James C. Calvert (1856- ? ) was born in about 1856. He is believed to have married and been a farmer in Silver Hill, Wetzel County in adulthood. He may be the same James Calvert who at the age of 75 died at the Wetzel County Infirmary on Aug. 25, 1931, caused by bronchitis and pleurisy. His remains were placed into rest in the Jolliffe Cemetery in Silver Hill.

Daughter Matilda Calvert (1859- ? ) was born on Jan. 13, 1859 in either Wetzel County (as stated on her marriage license) or Marshall County (listed on her death certificate). When she was 17, on Oct. 29, 1875, she was united in matrimony with 22-year-old Lewis Wiley Richmond (1854-1938), son of John and Nancy (Smith) Richmond of Marshall County. Rev. G.W. Parriott officiated. Their children were Leona Richmond and Mary Ann Richmond. They were longtime farmers in Marshall County’s Meade District. Lewis’ health declined in old age as a result of hardening of the arteries, and then was felled by a cerebral hemorrhage. He succumbed at age 84 on April 7, 1938. As a widow, she lived in Cameron, Marshall County, likely with her married daughter. Stricken with cancer of the gall bladder, Matilda suffered for five months and died at the age of 84 on Jan. 29, 1943. Mrs. Orva Gilbert of Cameron signed the death certificate. Interment was beside her spouse in Pleasant Ridge Cemetery.

Son David F. Cain (1838-1920?) was born in about 1838. He was a farmer and circa 1861 resided in Wetzel County.

At the age of 23, on Feb. 28, 1861, he married 28-year-old Mary Young (1832-1892), daughter of Jacob and Naomi Young of Marshall County. Rev. John Alley officiated.

The couple had these children – Andrew J. Cain, Jacob Cain and Samantha J. Cain -- and perhaps others.

They made their home for decades on a farm in Lynn Camp, Marshall County. The federal censuses of 1870 and 1880 show them in Marshall County’s Meade District, living next door to the family of David W. Cain and his wife Levina.

Mary succumbed to tuberculosis in Millsboro, on Pleasant Ridge in Marshall County, at the age of 59 on Jan. 13, 1892 at the age of 60.

David outlived her by more than a quarter of a century. He may have died in about 1920 and if so, rests with his wife in the Lynn Camp Cemetery.

Son Jacob Cain (1864- ? ) was born on March 25, 1864 in Marshall County. He married Nancy Kemp (1870- ? ), and they were lifetime farmers. Their one known son was Charles W. Cain. Later in life, the Cains lived in the rural outskirts of Moundsville. On the night of Jan. 24, 1941, Jacob accidentally fell off of the porch of their home. He fractured his left hip, and due to his advanced age coupled with hardening of the arteries, his health failed rapidly. Jacob died a week later in Glendale Hospital on Jan. 30, 1941, at the age of 76. Burial was in Roberts Ridge Cemetery. Their son Charles (1898-1976) married Pearl Miller and they followed the family occupation of farming. Charles and Pearl produced three children – Ralph Cain, Wilbert Cain and Mary Holmes.

They made their farm home in Lynn Camp circa 1860, when he was age 26 and she 20, and he earned a living as a farm hand.

Whether they produced any children is not known. Tragically, Amy died on or about May 16, 1866, when she was only 24 years of age.

George survived her and lived for another almost four decades. He passed into eternity in 1908, at the age of 74.

Son Absolum "Titus" Cain (1846-1918) was born on New Year's Day 1846 in Marshall County.

He married Abigail "Sarah" Blake (1848-1929), daughter of Nathaniel and Susan (Richerson) Blake of Marshall County.

They were farmers and made their home in the Proctor District of Wetzel County. Lacking basic education, Sarah could not write her name.

The Cains' known children were William B. Cain, David W. Cain, Maria J. Cain, Susan M. Cain, Samuel Cain, Mary M. Cain and Nathaniel S. Cain.

Absolum died of pneumonia at the age of 72 on Aug. 6, 1918 in Deene, Wetzel County. John N. Cain of Deene signed the death certificate.

Sarah survived him by five years and endured cancer of the eye and face. She died on May 27, 1929 in Knob Fork, Center Township. Mary Haines was the informant for her certificate of death. They rest together in Jolliffe Cemetery in Silver Hill. Their graves are marked by two shafts supported by one base, with the words "Gone Home" inscribed under both of their names.

Son William Benton Cain (1869- ? ) was born on Jan. 28, 1869 in the Proctor District of Wetzel County. He married Vina Critchfield. They lived in Hundred, Wetzel County and were farmers. Suffering from hardening of the arteries and heart disease, William retired from his work in July 1935. He died on Feb. 19, 1938 at the age of 69. He may be interred in Windy Ridge.

Many thanks to the Moundsville-Marshall County Public Library and New Martinsville Public Library for providing material for this page.