Cain, John M.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Mr. John M. Cain, father of Mrs. Harwi, was born July 30, 1839, at Castletown, Isle of Man. He grew up on his native island, attended the select schools, and learned the trade of carpenter. At the age of seventeen, in 1856, he immigrated to America and identified himself with the territory of Kansas. Here he lived a very useful and prominent career. He was successively a farmer, soldier, merchant and banker. During the period of bitter border warfare he was a volunteer in the company organized by A. S. Peck and Asa Barnes.

In 1862 he entered Captain P. H. McNamara's company and was elected sergeant. With the organization of regiments of colored troops he was appointed first lieutenant of a company in the Eighty-Third Regiment Colored Infantry, and afterwards was commissioned captain. He served until the close' of the war and made a splendid record as a soldier and offlcer. When the war was over he began farming in Atchison County. From his farm be applied some of his capital to the establishment of a store, and later became connected with the old Atchison State Bank and owner of the Cain & Harthorn Mill Company, The death of this Kansas pioneer occurred in 1897,

He was married May 15, 1879, to Miss Lucy Neerman, daughter of Frank and Isabella (Bust) Neerman. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Cain were: Eva, wifs of Foster Branson, of River Forest, Illinois; Ralph R., a banker at Ada, Oklahoma; Florence, Mrs. Frank E. Harwi; John Milton, counected with the A. J. Harwi Hardware Company; William Q., an attorney in Atchison; and Alfred Neerman, now deceased.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

  Go Back