The Passing of a Pioneer
John Cain, a sturdy rail-splitter and pioneer of the Puget Sound, passes away in Blaine at age 86.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
John Cain died here last night. He was the father of the Cain brothers, the founders of the town of Blaine. Born in Adams county, Ohio, on June 6, 1807, he was almost 86 years of age. He arrived in Blaine on July 1, 1871, as a pioneer and settled on the ground where the original town was platted. A contemporary of Abraham Lincoln in Illinois and Indiana, he was a powerful man, six feet tall, and a skilled rail-splitter. Cain and his wife, Lucretia Dubin, lived in Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Dakota before settling on the east shore of the Gulf of Georgia. They were once offered property in Seattle where Second Street is now located, but chose to stake their claim in the newer field of Drayton Harbor instead.
“He was a sturdy oak in his day, being co-temporary with Abraham Lincoln in Illinois and Indiana.”
Cain’s decision to pass on cheap Seattle real estate for the 'newer field' of Blaine reflects the perpetual cycle of urban expansion and land speculation that has defined the Pacific Northwest since the 19th century.
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