Thomas Benjamin Cain

Donated - unknown source
Thistewood (Now Beechwood) Cemetery
Pulaski Co., Il

Hudson-Cain Line

The 'dead end'  of the Hudson line is the family of a William Hudson who married an Emily Jane Cain in 1868 Evansville, Vanderburg, Indiana.   On the 1880 Census they are in Mound City, Pulaski, Il census and the family consists of William, Emily, Lewis Hudson, Millie Hudson and stepson, Benjamin Kane.  Working backward from that information I began to search for where this child was in 1870, the first census after the marriage.  I found who I believe to be William Hudson, his wife using the name "Emma" and a child named Lewis living in Evansville.  No "Benjamin".  Then I found two children, Benjamin and William Cain enumerated with a Thomas B. Carter and an older woman named Millie Parker.  Further backtracking found that Thomas B. Carter was the half-brother of Emily and the woman most certainly their mother who had been Millie Greer, married a Cullen W. Carter and then a Lewis Cain. Parker is thought to be a third husband.  The family is found in 1850 showing children of both Carter and Cain last names. Lewis Hudson is listed as next of kin when Thomas Benjamin Carter dies at the Veterans hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1919.

Other records indicate that Benjamin Cain was Thomas Benjamin Cain and he remained in southern Illinois.  It is believed he married Rosy Anna Brown.  His grave is thought to be in the Thistlewood Cemetery (now Beechwood) in Pulaski Co., Illinois.  The graves are not listed in Find-a-Grave and other listings but the area is well known for not having complete records assessible for online research.  No record of his step-father or his mother's grave have been found either.

It is assumed that Emily was his mother but no marriage records have been located connecting her to a marriage before William Hudson.  Further, there is the fact the child has her maiden name.  What this might mean is an illegitimate birth or the child belonged to someone else.  The name may provide some clues to the father.

Emily had at least two full brothers, Henry and Alexander, who are hard to locate after the Civil War.  It is possible these might be parent of the child and with a death the child might have been taken in by family members.  That he was named after an uncle may indicate a figure who was respected by the younger brothers.

It is obvious that Emily named her Hudson children after her father Lewis and her mother Millie.  On the death certificate of Lewis Hudson he noted his mother's name as Emma Carter which might indicate a confused awareness of his mother's family tree, since he had known his uncle Thomas B. Carter and records indicate she used on one census the name "Emma."

Thomas B. Carter, to further confuse things purchased a cemetery plot in Mechanicsville, Vanderburgh Co., Ind in 1876.  He also purchased a plot in the Cairo City Cemetery in southern Ill in the  mid 1880's.  They were apparently never used  - at least no evidence has been found to date. Plots for wives? Plots for sister and her husband? Plot for his own eventual demise? Plot for his mother or a wife?