From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, pages 346-347.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


JOHN JOSEPH KAIN

The Right Reverend John Joseph Kain, D. D., at present, bishop of the 
diocese of Wheeling, was born at Martinsburg Va., May 1841.  At an 
early age he was sent to St. Charles college, near Ellicott City, 
Howard county, Md., and made his collegiate course in that noted 
school.  On the completion of the course of study in that institution 
he passed to the department of philosophy and theology in St. Mary's 
university, Baltimore, Md.  Throughout the collegiate, philosophical 
and theological studies, he evinced rare talent, and was regarded as 
one of the most gifted, if not the most gifted, students in those 
large schools.  He was ordained priest, July 2, 1866, and assigned to 
the mission of Harper's Ferry and Martinsburg, W.Va.  When the See of 
Wheeling became vacant in 1874, the bishops of the province of 
Baltimore convened to provide a successor to the Right Reverend 
Richard V. Whelan, D. D.  Among the three names submitted to Rome for 
that exalted office was that of the Rev. J. J. Kain.  In February of 
1875, the anouncement came that Rome had appointed the Rev. J. J. 
Kain, and on the 23d of the following May, the new bishop was solemly 
consecrated in the Wheeling cathedral, honored by the presence of a 
large number of his brother priests and several Right Rev. Bishops 
from various parts of the country. Those of the clergy of the diocese 
of Wheeling who knew the incoming bishop rejoiced, because it was 
apparent to them that the choice was an excellent one.  In a very 
brief time all realized the grateful fact that Rome had placed at the 
helm in the diocese a man of extraordinary fitness; a man thoroughly 
equipped as a scholar, possessed of a very high order of 
administrative ability, and withal having few peers as a pulpit 
orator.  The episcopate of the Right Reverend Bishop Kain for 
fourteen or fifteen years has more than confirmed these 
anticipations. Time has proved that in the present bishop the clergy 
has found a ruler as kind as a father, the church a model prelate, 
and the people a chief pastor whose zeal, influence and devotedness 
guarantee their their spiritual well-being as long as it may please 
God to spare their bishop.  Socially, as well as intellectually, the 
subject of this sketch is a most worthy successor of the illustrious 
and revered Bishop Whelan, Truly Rome seems to have been partial to 
Virginia before the division into two states, and afterward in the 
character of the men placed over the Catholic church, Bishops Whelan, 
McGill, Gibbons and Keane at Richmond, and Whelan and Kain at 
Weeeling.  It is doubtful if any two Catholics Sees in the United 
States have had abler and more efficient bishops than Richmond and 
Wheeling.  Bishop Kain is yet a young man.  He is studious, 
industrious, attentive to his duties, able in pulpit and on platform, 
ever watchful of the interests of his church, and is highly esteemed 
by all who knew him.


(Linda Fluharty)