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James C. Cain (1847-1915)
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James
C. Cain was born in 1847 in Marshall County, WV, one of 10 children of John
and Ann Elizabeth (Earlywine) Cain. His second wife, Margaret Ellen White,
was born on Nov. 2, 1851 in West Virginia, the daughter of Alexander
and Eliza (Miller) White.
James grew up in Knob Fork in nearby Wetzel County, WV, where his parents were farmers.
An article in the Moundsville Daily Echo said that James “spent his entire life in West Va., until coming to Washington (PA) in 1907. Mr. Cain spent a number of years in farming. After retiring from farming, for five years he was located in Hundred, West Va., where he was largely engaged in handling coal. Since coming to Washington he was engaged at work with the Findlay Clay Pot Co. until about two years ago, when he was compelled to give up factory work on account of poor health. During this period he has spent most of his time, when able to work, in garden making."
On Oct. 20, 1870, James married Rachel Ann Reid, the daughter of Edward and Harriet Reed. They had four children – Josephine Derrow, twins John Edwin Cain and James Edwards Cain and Ida Bell Antill. The family resided in Marshall County, WV.
Tragedy struck the family on March 1, 1875, when Rachel died of a bad cold. She was just 22 years old, and left her husband to raise four young children. She was laid to rest in the Gray Cemetery, along Route 74 on upper Fish Creek, just a short distance from Adaline, WV.
Young, fatherless teenager Margaret Ellen White was sent to live with the Cains to help care for the motherless children.
After
less than two years as a widower, James and Margaret were married, on Jan. 11,
1880, by the hand of George W. Franklin. Records of this marriage have been
found in the archives of West
Virginia University. When the federal census was taken later that year, in
June, the Cains made their home in Silver Hill the Center District of Wetzel
County, next to his married sisters Lydia Jackson and Catherine Jackson.
The Cains -- seen at right in an old tintype -- went on to have five daughters – Osta Arminta Miner, Armena Viancy Miner Marshall, Eliza Ann Elizabeth Marshall, Susan J. Cain and Jessie Maude Cain. They lived in Silver Hill, Wetzel County, WV, before moving to a farm at Rock Camp near Hundred, Wetzel County.
In 1894, James purchased a farm of 101 in the Church District of Wetzel County. He sold this tract in 1897 and in the 1900 census is shown to be in the Church District of Wetzel County. Following retirement, they moved to a town lot in Hundred circa 1904.
According to his daughter Armena, James had:
... a big farm, and we had to work on it. We used to hoe corn and rake wheat and pitch hay and do everything like that... He was away back down ... toward ... where Hundred and Bellton was. We lived on a hill above Bellton for a long time. I was practically raised there and I was married there, in the old farm house... Pop had a big farm out there. We had a lot of hay, a big farm field, we had a little pond.
Tragedy
rocked the family again in 1907, when daughter Susan, who was staying with her
married sister Armena in Washington, PA, passed away unexpectedly.
Shortly afterward, the deeply grieving James and Margaret Ellen relocated to Washington to be near their daughters Ida and Armena. They joined the West Washington Methodist Church, transferring their membership from the Christian Church.
In the late 1910s, married daughters Osta Miner and Eliza Marshall and their husbands moved to Denver. During that time, at least two granddaughters were born in the Mile High City, but tragically one granddaughter -- Gertrude Marshall -- died there, the body was shipped to Washington and then transported to Margaret Ellen's home for the funeral.
James passed away at home on Oct. 28, 1915, at the age of 68. He was “a well-known and highly respected resident of the Eighth Ward,” said the Moundsville Daily Echo. “Mr. Cain had made many friends while in Washington, and his death came as a great shock to them. His death was due to pneumonia, after one week of illness.”
His brother John C. Cain, who lived in Taylors Ridge, WV, attended the funeral. Burial was in Washington Cemetery.
After three-plus years as a widow, Margaret Ellen passed away at age 67 on Jan. 6, 1919. The cause was a stroke and hardening of the arteries.
The log house at Rock Camp near Hundred, where the Cains lived circa 1900-1904, burned to the ground in a mysterious fire in 1985.
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Daughter Josephine (Cain) Derrow (1871-1952) ~ |
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| Josephine and James Derrow |
Daughter Josephine Cain was the eldest of nine siblings. She married James M. Derrow (1864-1945).
They resided at Rosbys Rocks, WV.
Their five children were Recie Derrow, Thelma Derrow, John Derrow, Hulda Derrow and one unidentified child.
Josephine's
widowed half-sister Armena Miner
occasionally brought her brood of young children to the Derrow farm for two-week
visits in the summers during the early 1920s.
James died in 1945, at the age of 81. The cause is not known.
Josephine outlived her husband by seven years. She passed away, also at the age of 81, in 1952. They rest together for eternity at the Salem Church of Christ Cemetery on Bowman Ridge in Marshall County.
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Son James Edwards "Ed" Cain (1873-1946) ~
Son James Edwards "Ed" Cain (1873-1946) -- seen at right -- was a twin with his brother John Edwin "Win." The boys were only two years of age when their mother died. They grew up in a household with their father and step-mother.
Ed never married. Said the Washington Reporter, "A machinist by trade, Mr. Cain was employed for 16 years by the Canonsburg Standard Tin Plate Company and during that period he resided at 321 Greenside avenue, Canonsburg."
In 1900, Ed made his home in Cecil, Washington County, as a lodger with Joseph and Ella Reed. He worked as a farm laborer that year.
The federal census of 1910 shows Ed as a boarder in the household of John and Dora Gragg on Broad Street in Washington. (The census-taker spelled his name "Kane.") Age 36 that year, his employment was given as "laborer - glass works," and he may have worked at the same Hazel Atlas Glass Company as did his twin brother Win and nephews Odger and Orlan Miner.
He lived in Ohio for a number of years in the early 1910s. By 1920, the 47-year-old Ed was a lodger in the Canonsburg home of Timothy and Anna M. Oherron, with his occupation marked in the census as "machinist - tin plate mill."
In later years Ed resided at Rose Lawn Sanitarium in Washington. He died there on Feb. 4, 1946.
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Son John Edwin "Win" Cain (1873-1931) ~
Son John Edwin Cain also was known as "Edwin W. Cain" or simply "Win."
In 1897, he married Ella Taylor (1876-1962), the daughter of Francis and Ellen Taylor. They are seen at left.
They resided in West Washington on Addison Street, and later made their home at 194 East Katherine Avenue. Win was a mechanic for many years at the Hazel Atlas Glass Company in Washington. Ella was a homemaker, and as a young woman was active in the Salvation Army program.
The
Cains had two children –
Willard F. Cain and Martha "Lillian" Smith.
Win and his twin brother Ed were close over the years. The two brothers are seen at right, circa the 1920s. Ed is on the left, wearing a high collar and necktie, and Win is on the right, wearing a bowtie.
At the age of 58, in died unexpectedly at home on Aug. 29, 1931. Said the Washington Reporter newspaper, he "was found dead in the cellar of his home... He had been in ill health for several months following an operation." Private funeral services were held at their home, led by Rev. J.H. Debolt of the West Washington Methodist Episcopal Church. Burial was in the family plot at Washington Cemetery, in a plot where five generations of Cain, White and Miner offspring rest for eternity.
Ella outlived Win by more than
three decades. She passed away at the age of 86 on Nov. 14, 1962. At the time of
her death, Ella had seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren.
Son Willard F. Cain (1898-1971) married Esther S. Crosbie in 1954. He was a veteran of both World War I and World War II. Said the Washington Observer-Reporter, he was a "resident of Washington since childhood" and was a member of the First United Presbyterian Church. He was a 50-year member of the Masons and a past-master of the lodge. "He was employed by the Paul & Post Hardware Store and was later associated with Knestrick Electric Company. He later worked for the South Strabane school district until his retirement." He died at the age of 73 on Sept. 22, 1971.
Daughter Lillian Cain (1900-1951) married David Smith and had one son, Donald G. Smith (1920-1988). Lillian died at the relatively young age of 51 in 1951.
| ~ Daughter Ida Belle (Cain) Antill (1876-1954) ~ |
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| David and Ida Bell Antill |
On June 20, 1896, at Hundred, daughter Ida Belle Cain married David Anderson Antill (1872-1947), the son of David and Hannah (Hinerman) Antill. He had been born at Aleppo, Greene County, PA, and was one of six children.
The Antills had seven known children -- James D. Antill, Edna L. Antill, Elizabeth Antill, Osta Pakulla, Mary Hansen, Paul Antill and Robert Antill. Sadly, daughter Edna died at the age of four in 1906, and Elizabeth died in infancy in 1908, and were buried in Washington Cemetery.
They first lived in Aleppo, Greene County, but made their home on Fayette Street and Addison Street "in the eighth Ward, Washington, for more than 35 years," said a Washington newspaper, "during which time he was employed by the Tyler Tube and Pipe Company, Plant 2 of the Highland Glass Company and The Topliff Ely Company." They were members of the West Washington Methodist Episcopal Church.
West
Washington is seen at right in a rare old postcard image.
In about 1932, the Antills moved from the west end of Washington to Dunns Station, Morris Township, Washington County.
David passed away at home at the age of 75 on Christmas Eve 1947, after suffering from an undisclosed illness for six weeks.
Ida Bell died on Feb. 9, 1954.
Son James D. Antill (1897-1950) served during World War I as a member of the 112th Ambulance Company of the 28th Division. He married Sara Maloy ( ? - ? ) in 1917. After the war, James was a farmer and also worked as a laborer in a toy factory and for the Findlay Clay and Pottery Company. He was a member of the Old Concord Presbyterian Church, and lived in the 1940s in Old Concord. He died at the age of 53 on April 18, 1950, having been ill for 15 months.
Daughter Osta Antill (1900- ? ) was a bookkeeper for a local coal works in Washington circa 1920.
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Daughter Eliza (Cain) Marshall (1884-1970) ~
On April 27, 1904, in Washington, daughter Eliza Ann Elizabeth Cain married Edward Leroy Marshall (1879-1960), the son of Benjamin Harrison and Emaline (Adams) Marshall of Smithfield, Fayette County, PA.
Early in their marriage, they resided in Denver, CO, circa 1915. Later, they returned to Washington, PA.
Ed worked for Tyler Tube and Pipe Co.; Findlay Refractories Co., Toplift-Ely Co. and Washington Burial Vault Co. Eliza was a member of the First Christian Church of Washington and the Lucy Mounts Class, Christian Woman's Fellowship and Golden Age Club of the church.
They had four daughters, none of whom were married – Anna Marguerite Marshall, Jessie Willadene Marshall, Helen Arminta Marshall and Gertrude Marie Marshall.
Sadly,
Gertrude died on Feb. 5, 1915 at the age of nine, while the family was in
Denver. Her remains were shipped back to Washington for funeral services at her
grandmother Cain's home, followed by burial in Washington Cemetery.
Ed passed away of a coronary occlusion at the age of 81 on March 6, 1960.
Daughter Helen Arminta Marshall (1921-1984) was born in Washington. She was an employee of Bell Telephone Company in Washington for 42 years. During her lifetime, she was president of the Fort Pitt Chapter of the Telephone Pioneers of America and the National Trails Council. She also was a member of the Pioneers of Bell Telephone and the Lady Hogue Rebekah Lodge. Helen made her home with her sister Jessie. She died in Washington Hospital at age 63 on May 2, 1984.
Daughter Anna Marguerite Marshall (1909-1982) was born in Denver. She was a graduate of the Washington Hospital School of Nursing (1931) and for 35 years was an office nurse for Dr. David Dunbar, retiring in 1979. She was a member of Lady Hogue Rebekah Lodge and the Dames of Malta.
Daughter Jessie W. Marshall (1911-1986) was born in Denver but moved to Washington at a young age. She was a longtime bookkeeper for Bull International. She was a member of the First Christian Church of Washington, the Lady Hogue Rebekah Lodge, the Dames of Malta and the Tri-State Rally Committee. Jessie died at the age of 74 at her residence on Burton Avenue in Washington on Sept. 21, 1986.
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Daughter Jessie "Maude" Cain (1890-1952) ~
Daughter Jessie Maude Cain -- seen at right -- never married.
Said the Washington Observer, "A seamstress, she was employed in that capacity for more than 15 years by the Caldwell Store." She was a member of the Church of Christ. Maude resided at 605 Addison Street for many years.
When she could no longer care for herself, she moved to Romeo, MI, where she lived in the home for the aged of the Church of Christ.
She passed away at the age of 62 at the Church of Christ home in Romeo. Said the Washington Observer, "Although she had not been well for several years, her death was sudden and unexpected."
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Daughter Susan Cain (1886-1907) ~
Daughter Susan Cain -- at left -- never lived to enjoy life to its fullest. As a young woman, she moved from her parents' home in Hundred to her sister Armena Miner's residence in Washington, PA.
For reasons not yet known, Susan died suddenly in the Miner residence in 1907, when she was only 21 years of age. She was laid to rest in the Washington Cemetery.
~ Daughter Armena (Cain) Miner Marshall (1882-1972) ~
Daughter Armena Viancy Cain is profiled in a separate biography on Minerd.com. She is known to have attended the Jackson-Cain Reunion, which was held between 1925 and 1942, according to the 1961 book, The Jackson Family by Jesse Calvin Cross. The president of the reunion was Armena’s first cousin, Enos Perry Jackson, the son of John J. and Lydia (Cain) Jackson. Though Armena’s daughters said that there might be a family connection to Civil War hero Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the Jackson book said:
For several years the author has been interested in the history of his mother’s family. As long as he can remember, it has been claimed that our family were of the same ancestry as “Stonewall” Jackson of Civil War fame. This belief was quickly dispelled after making a trip to Charleston, W.Va., to consult Dr. Roy Bird Cook the foremost historian of "Stonewall" Jackson. An examination of his records disclosed there were no connecting links between "Stonewall’s" ancestry and our lineage.
Copyright © 2008 Mark A. Miner