Old West Kansas

Kansas Family History

Family History of Joseph Gilliam McCAIN

Joseph Gilliam McCain and Mary Elizabeth Bell Morse married in 1879 in Caldwell County and settled in Crittendon County in the Shady Grove home that Joseph had inherited. My grandfather Bayliss Henry McCain was the oldest son and most of his siblings were born in that Shady Grove home. These children were Alma Schrader, Amy Gertrude, Laura Isabell, James Gilliam, Sarah Ailsa, Mary Ann, Victor Clement, Taylor Kenneth Roosevelt, John Lawrence, Joseph Wylie, Louis Herzog. Joseph Gilliam studied law in the office of a lawyer. In 1900 he was admitted to the Bar but still stayed on the farm.. In 1906 he sold the farm to J. M. McConnell for 975 dollars in gold and went by train to Phillipsburg, Kansas when Taylor was 6 wks old then moved to Mikesell in 1906. He died in 1908 but Mary Elizabeth lived there until she was 80.

My grandfather, Bayliss Henry McCain, met and married my grandmother, Lenora Myrtle Seeds, from Ontario, Canada. They met at a revival. Her parents George Bain Seeds and Martha Ann Hennesey came to Hutchinson and obtained the land where the present Salvation Army Post is located today. They were Captains. Their daughter, Katherine Victoria "Katie" Seeds was also a Captain stationed in Wichita. She developed tuberculosis and the entire family moved to the desert town of Barstow CA where she died the following year. George and Bayliss worked in the Santa Fe Railroad as storekeepers.

Most of the children remained in Kansas and the original farm in Mikesell Township, Rawlins County is still there and Louis and his son, John are living there today. Taylor and Mary Ann Seeds were elementary school teachers on the 1920 census in Atwood.

I am told that there are the Morses and McCains are listed in the history book on Rawlins County and were very active in the Masonic Lodge. I plan to visit there just before Thanksgiving. I would appreciate any information about these families and Rawlins County.