Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of Richard H. CAIN This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the sketch subject. 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 Bibliography: Johnson, Rossiter, ed. Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, - Vol. I-X (10). Boston, MA: The Biographical Society, 1904. Volume II page 90 CAIN, Richard H., clergyman, was born in Greenbrier county, Va., April 12, 1825. He was a negro and had no education except such as he received in the Sabbath-school, until 1846, when he commenced to study for the ministry. He spent the year 1860 at Wilberforce university, Xenia, Ohio, and engaged in pastoral labors in Brooklyn from 1861 to 1864, when he was sent as a missionary to the freedmen of South Carolina, and was for many years identified with the African M. E. church in that state. He was a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1867, a member of the state senate in 1868, and a representative from Charleston in the 45th Congress. He was appointed bishop by the general conference of the African M. E. church in 1880, and was assigned to the district of Louisiana and Texas. He founded Paul Quinn college at Waco, Texas, and advanced education within his district. Subsequently he became presiding bishop of the first episcopal district of the African M. E. church, embracing the conferences of New York, New Jersey, New England, and Philadelphia. He received the degree of D.D. from Wilberforce in 1873. He died in Washington, D. C., Jan. 18, 1887.