The Cain, Frost, and Naylor families are all present in this collection, especially James Harrison Cain and Elizabeth Amy Frost Cain; Richmond Frank (R. F.) Cain; and John Boyce Cain and Ina Lunn Naylor Cain.

James Harrison Cain was born on April 14, 1845, to William Cain and Emily Beeman of Iredell County, N.C. He spent his early years in Iredell County but by age 5, he was a resident of Davie County.

In April 1863, Cain joined the Davie County Home Guard and served in the Civil War on the Confederate side for 15 months. On July 27, 1864, Cain went to Plymouth, N.C. to volunteer as a landsman and powderman on the Confederate States ship, CSS Ram Albemarle. In 1898, Cain wrote a remembrance of the night of October 27,1864, when a small Union boat sent a torpedo into the side hull of the Ram Albemarle, sinking the ironclad to the bottom of the Roanoke River with Cain and 100 sailors aboard. All the soldiers survived, but Cain became a patient at the Confederate hospital #6 in Fayetteville. He was furloughed to return home in February 1865.

Soon after, Cain enrolled at the Union Academy in Farmington, N.C. It was there Cain met Elizabeth Amy Frost (1845-1936), another Academy student. The two were married August 18, 1868, and they built their first home on Frost family land near Dutchman Creek in Davie County. Previous generations of Frosts owned the land beginning in 1762. Together the Cains had 8 children: Walter Boone, Effie Eleanor, Prichard Beeman, Nana, Quilla, Margaret L., Harrison James, and John Boyce.

At the end of the Civil War, Davie County struggled to regain an agrarian economy. Cain was a merchant in partnership with his brother, R. F. (Richmond Frank), a dry goods merchant in Mocksville. Cain sold and bartered "eggs, corn, wheat, calico, gun powder, and medicines" locally. The growth of this mercantile business led Cain to build a store (1875) adjacent to his home, using timber from his family's land. At the time the store and post office began operation, the Cana community consisted of Eatons Baptist Church (established 1772), Cana Academy (began around 1848), and a tobacco factory owned by Ebenezer Frost (b.1840 - d.1903)

Cain was the owner and operator of the Cana General Store (1875-1909), and the store was a cornerstone of the community for seventy-five years. In addition to commerce, Cain was eager for "the news of the changing world to come into and out of his previously isolated community," according to a 2001 application to add the store to the National Register of Historic Places. So Cain applied to have a Fourth Class Post Office in February 1875 to be a part of the Cana General Store. The Postmaster General suggested the rural area, previously unnamed, be called Cana, after Cain as its first postmaster, a role that he held from 1875 to 1898.

In addition to these business ventures, Cain was also an inventor of devices and held 3 U.S. Patents. The first was for Improvements in Mowers (May 22, 1877), the second an Improvement in Mill Picks (April 8, 1879), and the third a Patent for Tobacco Sticks or Hangers (March 29, 1891). After living at Cana for 41 years (1868-1909), the Cains relocated to Mocksville in 1909, leaving the Cana store and post office to their son, John Boyce Cain, and his wife, Ina Lunn Naylor Cain. The move to Mocksville was for Cain's retirement, but he continued to sell goods as well as serving as a Justice of the Peace (1912-1928) and voter registrar for Davie County's Democratic (1918-1928). James Harrison Cain died on August 28, 1932, and is buried at Eatons Baptist Church in current-day Mocksville.

Richmond Frank (R. F.) Cain, James Harrison Cain's older brother, was born September 12, 1835. He was the third of ten children. Per the 1860 census, Cain worked as a clerk in a Mocksville general store owned by P. R. Martin. In 1861, Cain entered the Civil War as a 1st Lieutenant Co. L, 77th Regiment, 19th Brigade N.C. Militia of Davie County, serving until March 26, 1862. Cain married Leonora S. Taylor in Davie County on October 22, 1863. Two children, Stella and Pauline, both died in infancy. Leonara died on February 22, 1872.

During this time, R. F. worked as a dry goods merchant in Mocksville per the census, but by 1878 he had moved west. On December 18, 1878, he married Narcissa Little in Jersey, Illinois. The 1880 census lists Cain as a grocery merchant, living in Sedalia, Missouri. Letters home from Cain discuss businesses, commerce, and crops like tobacco. He died on October 12, 1917, in Sedalia, Missouri.

The second generation of Cana General store owners and operators were John Boyce Cain and his wife Ina Naylor Cain.

John Boyce Cain was born in Cana on September 27, 1883, the eighth and youngest child of James Harrison Cain and Elizabeth Amy Frost. Cain spent his entire life here in the house that his parents built, the fifth generation of Frost descendants to live on that land. He most likely attended Cana Academy, since the Academy was within easy walking distance from his home.

Cain wore many hats in his lifetime. He served as assistant postmaster and rural mail carrier for the Cana community, delivering mail on horseback or horse and buggy and later by Ford car to cover upwards of 25 miles in a day according to a August 31, 1972, article in the Davie County Enterprise. The Cana post office closed in 1954, but Cain continued to operate the store until 1964. The store and Cain himself served during difficult times such as the 1918 influenza pandemic and the Great Depression.

In addition to his work, Cain was very involved in Eatons Baptist Church, as Sunday School Superintendent (1907-1953), Choir Leader, and lay Minister. He was also chairman and board member of the Davie County Board of Education (1937-1965); during his 28 year tenure with the Board of Education he saw "private academies give way to neighborhood public schools, and then the creation of countywide consolidated schools" (Davie County Enterprise).

Cain served 14 years with the Davie County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, and he was one of the first to embrace new farming methods such as terracing the hills, planting ground covers, and crop rotation, instituted by the N.C. Department of Agriculture. He also was a Charter Member for the Davie Rural Electric Membership Corporation's Board of Directors and secretary of the Rural Electrification Association (1939-1948). And Cain was also a Justice of the Peace for a time. John Boyce Cain died on January 17, 1974, and is buried at Eatons Baptist Church Cemetery, like his father.

Ina Lunn Naylor Cain was born August 4, 1884, in Davie County to William Bryant Naylor and Susan Elizabeth Hutchins. She lived in the Farmington Township of Davie County, an area that had long been home to her Lunn, Hutchins, and Ferebee ancestors. The Cain and Naylor families were country neighbors with lots of land and a creek between them; like John Boyce, Ina attended Cana Academy. She taught school in Davie County before marrying Ina married John Boyce on October 6, 1909. Together Ina and John Boyce Cain raised five daughters and one son: Lucille Elizabeth, Eleanor Gray, Margaret Frazelle, Gladys Naylor, Mabel Joyce, and John Boyce.

While raising six children, Cain had a career outside the home for 35 years, serving as Postmistress for the Cana Post Office from 1919-1954. When Ina retired from her career as postmistress in 1954, the Cana Post Office was the last fourth-class post office to close in N.C. In addition to her paid work and her family, Ina also served as the organist of Eatons Baptist Church, taught Sunday School, and was active in the Women's Missionary Union. Ina Naylor Cain died December 18, 1964, before her husband, and is buried at Eatons Baptist Church.

The Frost Farm, located on Cana Road in Mocksville, is now 260 years old, and continues to be owned by Cain family descendants. The farm received the designation of N.C. Bicentennial Farm in 2022.