Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of George E. CAIN This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 326-327 GEORGE E. CAIN owns and conducts the Belington Garage, a modern and well ordered establishment in the fine little City of Belington, Barbour County, where he is known and valued as a progressive business man and liberal and loyal citizen. He was born in Tyler County, this state, August 28, 1876, and there continued his association with farm industry until he was twenty-three years of age, his educa- tional advantages in the meanwhile having been those of the rural schools and the summer normal schools. He made a record of three years of effective service as a teacher in the rural schools, and at the age of twenty-three years he took the position of bookkeeper for the Kane & Keyser Hardware Company at West Union. As secretary of this company he assisted in the opening of the branch store at Belington in 1901, and here he continued his connection with the company until 1903, when he here engaged in the ice and bottling business, in which he continued until his business plant was destroyed by fire in 1910. In the spring of 1911 he established on the site of his present garage an enterprise in the handling of farm implements and machinery, feed, etc., and this he continued until 1914, since which time he has been one of the leading representatives of the automobile business in this locality. He was local agent for the Ford and Overland automobiles for six years, and still continues representative of the latter and also of the Buick cars, he having dropped the Ford agency in 1919. In the past six years he has sold in Barbour County a greater number of Overland cars than the combined sale of all other make of cars. In 1918 Mr. Cain erected the main building of his present large and modern garage plant, a concrete structure 100 by 120 feet in dimensions, a part of the building being two stories in height and the upper floor being now fitted out as one of the most attractive club rooms in the state. The equipment of the sales rooms and repair shops is of the best modern type, and the busi- ness constitutes an important feature in the vital activities of Belington. The political allegiance of Mr. Cain is given to the democratic party, but he has had no desire to enter the arena of so called practical polities. He served two years as city recorder of Belington and is now secretary of the local Chamber of Commerce. He is affiliated with the Masonic Blue Lodge at Belington and the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons at Philippi, the county seat. He and his wife are members of the Christian and Methodist Episcopal Church respectively. In April, 1904, Mr. Cain wedded Miss Olive Wilson, who was born and reared in Marion County and who is the elder of the two surviving children of W. D. Wilson, her sister Flossie, being the wife of L. V. Atha, a passenger train conductor on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, with residence at Grafton, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Cain have four children: Wilson and Kathryn are, in 1922, students in the Belington High School, Lucile is attending the Junior High School, and Richard Lee is an infant. Mr. Cain is a son of Nathan and Elizabeth (Freeman) Cain, both representatives of old and honored families of West Virginia and both residing on the fine old homestead farm in Tyler County, where they established themselves soon after their marriage. Nathan Cain was born in Tyier County, in 1846, and in what is now West Virginia was also born his father, Lorenzo D. Cain, who was a farmer by vocation. The family name of his wife was Hanes, and they became the parents of eight sons and four daughters. Mrs. Nathan Cain was born in Doddridge Connty, a daugh- ter of Smith Freeman. George E. Cain, of this review, is the eldest of the family of four children: Emma is the wife of L. B. Strickling, of Wellsburg, Brooke County; Maude is the wife of J. L. Walton, of Clarksburg, this state; and Orpha is the wife of Eanza Pitts, an oil well driller in Tyler County.