John McMichael lived in a nearby house and served as the church janitor. John was the son of Thomas McMichael and Nancy Ann Moody McMichael and he and his wife Mahala Britton McMichael are buried in the Stanley Cemetery, here, along with many relatives. The 1850 census has John Bennett Kennedy, and his wife Charity, and his son Samuel, and his wife, living in the same area as Ambrose Cain. John Bennett Kennedy had a daughter, Sarah Jane Kennedy, born 10 Oct 1823, who married Charles Leo Cain and had a number of children. Her daughter Margaret Victoria (age 2 months, 6 days) is buried in the Cain Cemetery in Nodaway County along with Sara Jane (age 6 months, 24 days). George M. and George W., also sons of Sarah Jane and Charles Cain are buried here. Jesse Cain and Martha, parents of Ambrose Cain are buried here along with his sister Mourncy Cain. There is obviously a relationship between the Cains and the Kennedy family at this point, but it is not clear what that is or what is going on. The memorial data on Mariam Lowe Cain indicate that she was the wife of Jesse Cain and the mother of Mourncy, Nathaniel, Belthelmite,
most successful toy manufacturing operations in the United States. It was centered on a factory complex in New Haven that made electric trains (American Flyer), chemistry sets (Gilbert brand), fans, food mixers, mechanical building kits (Erector Sets), magic sets, microscope sets, etc.. For a while his toy company was a legend at Christmas time. I, and my Father Ralph B. Andrews, visited the Gilberts for a week. Thus, I toured the factory and grounds of the square mile of Gilbert estates in suburban New Haven in the summer of 1952, when I was 12. My aunt Miriam (Thompson) Gilbert married Frank Gilbert, a son of Harold Gilbert of Portland, Oregon. Harold was a brother of Alfred, which made Frank his nephew. Frank had studied engineering at Yale. When I was two years old, in 1942, my Father went to work as a Bank Examiner for the Treasury Department and was sent to the Utah area. My Mother went to work in the Reiber aircraft plant (later Lear Jet). Frank Gilbert was an electronic engineer on the staff of the plant and my grandfather Hugh was working as their purchasing
But the changes came in waves, as they had been coming from the time of the revolution. First the interior was opened up to settlement (during the lives of John and Charity Kennedy) and roads and canals opened up the backcountry (the day and age of Samuel T and Lucretia Webster Smith Kennedy). Then the steamboat and the railroad brought cheaper transport. My great grandparents (Henrietta and Benjamin Harrison Lingenfelter) lived in the later part of the age when the railroad was opening up the West, and my grandparents (Hugh and Mary Thompson) in the age of electricity, telephones, and automobiles. My parents times (Jean and Ralph Andrews) were dominated by the movies, airplanes, buses, street cars, and radio, the electrification of rural areas, the triumph of indoor plumbing. My age (Allan and Steve Andrews) was the age of television, of nuclear power, of transistors and travel to the Moon. Each of these periods has seen radical changes, but the changes are building and multiply at an ever increasing rate of speed. The problem is that we have become too accustomed to this craziness. For five thousand years, prior to the industrial revolution, culture and society changed at a far slower rate.