Bishop Richard Harvey Cain

In 1867, seven men, headed by Richard Harvey Cain, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Denomination purchase 620 acres of land from the South Carolina Railway Company for $1000. These collective acres became incorporated as the Town of Lincolnville in 1889.

These seven men were all members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

They were:

Rev. Richard Harvey Cain, Daniel Adger, Marc Buffett, Hector Grant, Rev. Lewis Ruffin Nichols, Rev. M. B. Salters and Walter Steele. 

Richard Harvey Cain was born on April 12, 1825 in Greenbrier County, Virginia, which is now West Virginia. He was born free because his parents were free. He was the son of a Cherokee Indian mother and an African father.  In 1832, he moved with his parents to Gallipolis, Ohio. As a young man he worked on a steamboat on the Ohio River but soon answered to the call to enter religious life. He was converted in 1841 to the Methodist Episcopal Church at age 16, but discrimination within the white Methodist church led him to join the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). In 1859, he was ordained a deacon in the AME church. He enrolled in Wilberforce University in 1860. In 1865, Rev. Cain was assigned as pastor of Bridge Street AME in Brooklyn, NY. He remained there until moving to Charleston, SC in 1865. 

Soon after arriving in Charleston, under Rev. Cain’s leadership, funds were raised to purchase property on Calhoun Street to build what is now, Mother Emanuel AME Church. 

Due to unrest and mistreatment of blacks in Charleston, Rev. Cain began purchasing land in the surrounding area. In 1867, Rev. Cain and seven men purchased 620 acres of land, which would become the Town of Lincolnville. The acres were divided and sold to blacks who wanted a place to be free. 

Richard Harvey Cain was deeply involved in politics in South Carolina. He served as a member of the Reconstruction Constitutional Convention in 1868 and played an important role in rebuilding the government of the state along liberal lines. There he argued that the state constitution should provide all children the benefit of a publicly funded education. As a member of the SC Land Commission, he argued for the redistribution of farmland. He offered a resolution asking Congress to appropriate one-million dollars for the purchase of land in South Carolina as a measure of relief for freedom. Although his resolution was not accepted, the idea was incorporated in the establishment of the South Carolina land Commission in 1869. Throughout the Reconstruction era, Rev. Cain believed that land ownership was the means by which blacks could achieve progress and prosperity. 

In 1872, Rev. Richard Harvey Cain won an at-large seat in the 43 Congress. He was the first black to win a statewide political campaign in the history of South Carolina. Rev. Cain won a second term in 1877 representing Charleston.

Rev. Cain edited two Republican newspapers during Reconstruction. In 1866, he took the leadership of the South Carolina Leader. He was also editor of the Missionary Record, the official paper of South Carolina AME Conference and one of the most influential newspapers in the state. 

After Reconstruction, Rev. Cain moved to Texas and was elected president of the Paul Quinn College. In 1880, he was appointed bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  Bishop Richard Harvey Cain died on January 18, 1887 in Washington, DC.  He is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Washington DC.  Mother Emanuel and Morris Brown AME Churches in Charleston have marble memorials to this great patriarch in their main sanctuaries. 

The Town of Lincolnville celebrates the life of Richard Harvey Cain by giving the Richard Harvey Cain Award to a citizen who lives or has lived in Lincolnville and has contributed to the improvement of the Town of Lincolnville. The first three recipients were Sonia Glover (2003), Rev. Alonzo Holman (2004), Rosalee Washington (2005) and Pernessa Seele (2006). 

[Excerpts taken from:  The History of Lincolnville, South Carolina written by Christine W. Hampton and Rosalee W. Washington; and  A Study of Lincolnville, SC: A Negro Community” By Luella D. Seele. Master’s thesis, School of Education, Atlanta University, 1956].

“He was a generally referred to even by his enemies, as an upright and honest man who deserved the good will of all citizens.”