Background
Joseph Hilliard Cain was born in the Ramsey Springs community of Harrison County, Mississippi (now part of Stone County) on March 25, 1892, and was the sixth child of Thomas Wistar Cain and Miranda Whittington Cain.
Joseph Hilliard Cain was born in the Ramsey Springs community of Harrison County, Mississippi (now part of Stone County) on March 25, 1892, and was the sixth child of Thomas Wistar Cain and Miranda Whittington Cain.
In 1913, he completed his secondary education at Daisy-Vestry High School. In 1915, Cain enrolled in Mississippi Normal College where he studied for two years.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Cain enlisted in Troop Doctorate, First Mississippi Cavalry on June 29, and served as a corporal and sergeant. He was stationed at Camp Beauregard in Louisiana. On August 4, 1917, while in military service, Joseph Cain married Hilda Martin of Moss Point, Mississippi.
Joseph and Hilda would become the parents of six children.
In July 1918, Cain was commissioned a second lieutenant in Field Remount Squadron 337 of the Quartermaster Corps, serving at Camp Johnston, Florida. The war ended before Cain’s unit was sent overseas, and he was honorably discharged on December 18, 1918, at Camp Stuart, Virginia.
After World War I, Cain served as a deputy sheriff in Jackson County, Mississippi. In 1919, Cain was elected to the House of Representative in the Mississippi State Legislature and served Jackson County for four years (1920-1924).
In 1915, Cain first received a license to teach in Mississippi public schools.
He taught in Jackson, George, and Stone Counties. He also served as principal in the Leakesville school and in the Powers School of Stone County. In 1924, Cain was reauthorized to teach in Mississippi public schools.
On occasion, he officiated as preacher at Pine Grove Methodist Church in Jackson County.
During the 1930s, Cain worked with the Mississippi State Forest Service (now Mississippi Forestry Commission) and was Project Superintendent at the Camp F-16 in the Ramsey Springs Community. Camp F-16 (Unit 1484) opened on June 21, 1935.
In 1942, the Commodity Credit Corporation program was disbanded nationwide as many enrollees entered military service following the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World World War II, Cain worked as a shipfitter at Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
After World World War II, he was an employee of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Joseph Hilliard Cain, Senior died in 1962 and is buried in Hunt-Whittington Cemetery, in Stone County, Mississippi.
Cain was a member of the House Standing Committees on Education, Railroads, Census and Apportionment, Fees and Salaries, Commerce and Shipping, and Fisheries.