John was the son of Bartlett and Jenny (Snow) Cave. He was born September 18, 1809 in Orange Co., VA, but the family soon after moved to Surry Co., NC, where they had relatives. In about 1833, one of John's married brothers, Galen, went west with two of their brothers-in-law. They wandered around for awhile and in 1835 settled in Jackson Co., MO at a place they began to call Lone Jack, named after a single Black Jack tree standing up on the ridge that divided the Osage and Missouri rivers. It was a notable landmark. They began to develop a new community.

The rest of the family joined them the next year, but it's not clear that John and his parents came directly from North Carolina. They were not listed on the census there in 1830, and it's possible that they had already moved to some intermediate place by that time, perhaps Kentucky or Tennessee, before continuing on to Missouri.

There was a John Cave on the Roane Co., TN census in 1830.

John married September 6, 1836, Lone Jack, to Nancy Hunter, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Jean) Hunter. They bought land three miles southeast of the little village in October and became farmers. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born the following year. They did well and were able to buy additional land in 1838, 1839 and 1843. They would eventually raise a family of nine children.

The 1840 Jackson Co., MO census shows

An elderly woman was living with John and Nancy in 1840. This may have been Nancy's recently widowed grandmother, Elizabeth (Goode) Jean, who also came from Surry Co., NC with her husband the Rev. William Jean, who died in 1837 in neighboring Lafayette Co., MO. Nancy named her first child after her. They had no slaves.

1840 Jackson Co., MO census, p. 82
John S. Cave
One male aged 30-39 [John]
One female aged 70-79 [grandmother Elizabeth (Goode) Jean?]
One female aged 20-29 [Nancy]
Two females under 5 [Elizabeth and Mary]
[no slaves - 1 person in agriculture]

In 1849, John was a witness to his cousin James Snow's will. Eight years after John's death, his son and son-in-law swear that it was his signature on the will:

In the matter of the last will of James Snow, Gias Cave and Jacob Bennett being duly sworn before, I say that they are each acquainted with the handwriting of the late John S. Cave, now deceased, that they both seen said John S. Cave write in his life time, that they have both married, signed adm., after said John S. Cave signed to the last will of said James Snow and they are both satisfied from the information of said signature of John S. Cave to said will attesting witness, that it is the genuine signature of said John S. Cave. Said affiants both state that they are of lawful age, now the neighbors of said John S. Cave known in his lifetime.
[signed] Guis Cave
[signed] Jacob Bennett
Sworn to and executed before me this 15th of May 1872. R.C. U_______?
Judge Probate Court

The Church of Christ in Lone Jack was organized in 1842 with seventeen members, including John and Nancy. John would be made a deacon in 1853.

John and Elizabeth lived next door to her parents in 1850. They had five children by then:

1850 Jackson Co., MO census, Van Buren township, pg 355
John S. Cave, 40, farmer, 400, VA
Nancy, 30, NC
Eliza, 13,in school, MO
Mary, 10, MO
Algias, 7, MO
Susan, 5, MO
Alley, 2, MO
No slaves

In 1851, the great cholera epidemic spread westward across the state from St. Louis and hit hard in Jackson County. John's brother Galen and their brother-in-law John Snow both died within a few hours of each other.

An incident in 1856, later related by his daughter to Matilda to her grandchildren, illustrates John and Nancy's personal involvement with an issue that was beginning to tear the Kansas/Missouri border area apart - slavery.

1856 - One day when Matilda was five years old, her father sent their seventeen-year-old slave out to chop slippery elm wood bark to make medicine for someone who was sick. Matilda was sent along with one or two other children to be babysat by the slave while he worked and was told to mind him, but when the boy chopped down a tree to debark, she sat on the trunk so he couldn't work. He said, "Missy, get up. I have to cut bark off." He repeated this once or twice while she ignored him, thinking to herself in spite of her father's instructions that, "I don't have to obey no slave!" The slave, himself an immature teenager, mockingly threatened her with the ax and chopped it down next to her while she sat on a log, but he miscalculated and accidentally gashed her hand, cutting thumb and forefinger to the bone, although without breaking any bones. Her father didn't want to whip the slave, but the neighbors insisted, and so her father did while Matilda and the neighbors watched. Her father then went back into the house. Matilda went to the kitchen door and saw her father sitting at the table with tears running down his face. She had never seen her father cry before and knew that it was her fault and was very ashamed of herself.

John and Nancy continued to do well. In 1860, they had one slave in their household (probably the boy described in the above story) and in addition to farming, John reports that he is working as a carpenter.

1860 Federal census, Lone Jack, Jackson Co, MO
John S. Cave,42, Carpenter, 1800 1590, VA
Nancy, 41, NC
Mary J., 19, MO
Allguis, 17, laborer
Susan F.,11
Ella E., 11
Matilda, 9
Berilda T., 4
John B., 1
One slave

The struggle over slavery brought violence to the Missouri/Kansas border area:

[Extract from a pamphlet published by the Civil War Museum of Lone Jack, Missouri.]
"Friction developed between the pro-slavery Missourians and the abolitionist forces in Kansas territory by 1854. Violent guerrilla and political fighting, led by such men as Jim Lane, John Brown, William Quantrill and "Bloody Bill: Anderson, terrorized the local populations. The outbreak of the Civil War of April 12th, 1861, served to increase the hostility and intensify the border warfare."

On April 16, 1862, the Battle of Lone Jack was fought. Many of the town's men had left by this time to join the Confederate guerillas or army. Union forces occupied the hotel of Bartlett B. Cave, Galen's son. Bartlett's wife and children were still in residence, along with his mother, Susanna (Easley) Cave. The women and children were caught in the middle of the fighting, lying on the floor to escape the flying bullets, until finally the house was set on fire and they and the Union soldiers were forced to flee for safety. Susanna, Lucinda, and the children managed to reach the relative safety of a field behind the Confederate lines, where they lay down to hide in the high weeds. After awhile, Lucinda raised herself up on her elbow to nurse her crying baby and was shot in the breast, the bullet piercing a lung. She died three weeks later and without her mother's milk and care, her baby girl also died soon after.

After the Battle of Lone Jack, violence between Confederate and Union sympathizers kept the area in turmoil:

[Extract from a pamphlet published by the Civil War Museum of Lone Jack, Missouri.]
"In Kansas City, several female relatives of Quantrill's men had died with the collapse of the building where they were imprisoned by the Union forces. In retaliation, Quantrill led his men, including Frank and Jesse James, in a devastating attack on Lawrence, Kansas. The raiders struck at dawn on August 21, 1863, killing more than 150 townspeople and destroying more than 185 buildings.
As a result of the raid on August 25, 1863 Union officials issued General Order No. 11, in an effort to depopulate Jackson County and deprive the guerillas of any and all aid. Everyone living more than one mile from Independence, Hickman's Mill, Pleasant Hill and Kansas City had to leave their home. Those who took an oath of loyalty to the Union could live in those towns; otherwise they had to leave the County. Their homes, farms and crops were destroyed and the County became a wasteland. Bitterness from Order No. 11 lived long after the war."

A good history of the situation in the area is given in "The Story of Lone Jack", by Romulus L. Travis, 1907.

The Cave family prepared to go. Union troops continued to scour the countryside looking for remnants of Quantrill's band. On the morning of September 6, 1863, John was at his father-in-law John Hunter's place loading wagons when a company of Federals under Colburn and Clark's command came to arrest him and five other men, including two of Nancy's brother, John David and William Hunter, and a nephew and a cousin. There had been reports that Quantrill on his way to Kansas had stopped for dinner at the farm of one of the men and that the others had gone to visit him there. The prisoners were taken a short way down the road and shot, their bodies left on the ground.

There are two stories as to who found them. One relates that Jane Cave (widow of a cousin) and Patsy Potter found them when they went looking for a horse that had been taken from Jane. Another that John Hunter had followed the party and heard the shots.

There was no time and it was too dangerous to take the bodies to the cemetery. John Hunter dug shallow graves close to where they fell, helped by neighbor Martin Rice. John's widow, Nancy brought quilts from their house to shroud the bodies of her husband and brothers. They quickly laid them in the ground and filled in the graves before hurrying away, afraid that the killers would return. It was John and Nancy's twenty-seventh wedding anniversary and she was seven months pregnant with their ninth child.

Various family researchers, including Larry Sullivan and Lillian Lorena Cave, have written detailed accounts of that day. Larry Sullivan's website brings them all together and is well worth reading:

http://erazone.com/family/family.htm

The below consists of extracts from Lillian L. Cave's work that directly refer to John S. Cave:
[Source: The Biography of Benjamin Potter. The Westport Historical Society by Lillian L. Cave.]
On the early morning of September 6, 1863, Mr. Potter's son, Benjamin, and his grandson, Thomas, went to get oxen so they might leave that day though there were three or four days leeway under Order No. 11. When their return was delayed, Mr. Potter mounted his horse and started in search of them. He was met a short distance away by a detachment of the 9th Kansas Regiment under Capt. C. F. Coleman and turned back. The squad also had Martin Rice, his son Isaac, and David and William Hunter, and Calvin Tate, son-in-law of Mr. Rice. They later picked up John S. Cave, my grandfather, and Andrew Owsley, his cousin. They were taken to the Roupe farm where Colonel Clark of the 9th Kansas was campted and took the names of all eight men. He then "retired into the underbrush" as related by Mr. Rice; Coleman took over, saying to Mr. Rice, "You will take your son and travel." The words were spoken in an ominous tone and the Rices left promptly. Shortly, firing was heard and when relatives of the men became greatly alarmed, Mr. Rice told them he thought the soldiers were "shooting chickens for breakfast on the Roupe Farm."
Shortly Jane Cave asked Amanda Potter to accompany her to the soldier's camp to ask the colonel to return her saddle horse. When the two youngsters arrived at the camp, they found all six of the captives dead and the troops gone.
Much information eventually leaked out as to events of the morning...
John S. Cave, my grandfather, asked permission to pray. Whether it was granted or not I do not know. He had a son in the Confederate army in Arkansas, a wife and six children at home and a son yet unborn. He must have died in an agony of anxiety for them. Whether he uttered a prayer or not, God must have watched over the helpless family, which for over a year was sheltered in an abandoned house near Dover, Missouri, where a son was born November 6, 1863. The widow assumed many unaccustomed responsibilities and found many kind neighbors. The family raised a garden and on one occasion the mother and daughters with the help of their dog, killed a wild hog to supplement their meat supply.
...
The six men were buried near where they fell, with quilts for caskets and pillows for headrests. Mr. Rice and his son assisted 75-year-old John Hunter in burying his two sons, a grandson, David Owsley, his son-in-law, John S. Cave, and the other victims. There was not time for the usual burial service, as all feared the soldiers might return and massacre the entire neighborhood. While the men laid the dead to rest, the women packed wagons for departure.
...
When the war was over, several Confederates, relatives of the men slain, returned home to learn of the tragedy. They located Coleman and were laying plans to kill him when he died. I have often heard my father, Gaius Cave, tell of the plot. He was a kindly man, but always ended the story, face set and eyes seeming to be looking into the past, with the words, "And he died before we got to kill him."

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Children:

1. Elizabeth Goode Cave, b. 31 Aug 1837, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 4 Oct 1857, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO to Jacob W. Bennett [b. 12 May 1833, Knoll Co., Ohio; d. 28 Dec 1912, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; son of George Bennett]; she d. 1880-1883, Lone Jack; buried Lone Jack cemetery.

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2. Mary Jane Cave; b. 2 Jun 1840, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 1876, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO to Thomas A. J. Faulkenberry [b. 20 Dec 1844, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; d. 7 Jun 1912, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; son of Thomas Faulkenberry of TN and Martha Wright of TN]; she d. 13 May 1896, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; buried Lone Jack Cemetery.

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3. Algius T. Cave "Gaius", b. 1 Jun 1843, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 22 Feb 1869, Cass Co., MO to Amanda Missouri Potter [b. 24 Mar 1845 in Bedford, IN; d. 8 Apr 1916, Tempe, Maricopa Co., AZ, daughter of William Columbus Potter and Hester Ann Cobb; she was granddaughter of Benjamin Potter]; he d. 2 Aug 1930, Long Beach, Los Angeles Co., CA; buried Westminster Memorial Park, Orange Co., CA.

They were living near their relatives near Lees Summit, MO as newlyweds:

1870 Jackson Co., MO, Lee's Summit, p. 136
[Indexed as "Cane"]
Gus Cave, 27, farmer, MO
Amanda, 24, IN

By 1880, they had three children. Gaius was now working as a carpenter and he followed that trade for the rest of his life:

1880 census, Jackson Co., MO, Sniabar Township, p. 137C
Gaius Cave, 37, carpenter, born MO; father b. KY; mother b. NC
Amanda M., 34, IN NC IN
Minnie F., 8, MO
John T., 6, MO
Anna E., 2, MO

Sometime before 1890, the family moved to Tempe, Arizona where their last child, Lillian, was born.

1896 Apr 16 - Gaius and son John both registered in the "Great Register of Maricopa County, Arizona Territory." This seems to be a list of qualified voters, as women and children were not included and if the person listed was not a native citizen, date and place of naturalization was noted:
Gaius Cave, age 52; native of Missouri; resident of Tempe
John T. Cave, age 22; native of Missouri; resident of Tempe

1900 Maricopa Co., AZ, Tempe, p. 283
Gaius T. Cave, b. Jun 1843, m'd 30 yrs, MO NC NC, carpenter
Amanda M., b. Mar 1845, IN NC IL, 4 chdn; 4 living
John T., b. Apr 1874, MO
Anna E., b. Sep 1878, MO
Lillian L. b. Apr 1890, AZ

1910 Maricopa Co., AZ, Tempe, p. 212
Gaius Cave, 66, m'd 41 yrs, MO KY NC, house carpenter
Amanda, 64, 4 chdn: 4 living, IN IN IN
Anna, 32, MO MO IN
Lillian, 19, AZ MO IN

Amanda died in Tempe in 1916 and was buried at Tempe Double Butt Cemetery.

1920 Maricopa Co., AZ, Tempe, p. 216
Gaius Cave, 76, w'd, MO KY NC, carpenter
Lillian, 28, AZ, MO IN, clerk

Gaius moved to Long Beach, California sometime between 1920 and 1930 with his daughter Lillian and his daughter Minnie Frizzell and her husband George. Minnie and George were there by 1923, as George died in California that year. By 1930, both daughters were living with Gaius:

1830 Census, Los Angeles Co., CA, Long Beach, p. 1B
Gaius Cave, 86, MO NC NC
Minnie F H Frizzell, 58, MO MO IN
Lillian L Cave, 39, AZ MO IN

Gaius Cave's children:
1) Minnie Florence H. Cave, b. 3 Sep 1871, Jackson Co., MO; m. 17 Jun 1896 to George Miller Frizzell [b. 16 Oct 1865, Jackson Co., MO; d. 19 Jul 1923, Long Beach, Los Angeles Co., CA]; 1930 she was a widow in Long Beach, Orange Co., CA living with her father and sister Lillian; she d. 11 Feb 1963, age 91, Long Beach, Los Angeles Co., CA.
2) John Thomas Cave, b. 4 Apr 1874, Jackson Co., MO; m. 26 Aug 1903, Tempe, Maricopa Co., AZ to Stella Elizabeth Chapman [b. 13 Jan 1873, La Salle, La Salle Co., IL; d. 17 Jun 1950, daughter of Heman Baldwin Chapman and Lucy Gunn]; d. 18 May 1964, Los Angeles Co., CA, age 90.
3) Anna E. Cave, b. Sep 1878, Jackson Co., MO;
4) Lillian Lorena Cave, b. 27 Apr 1890, Tempe, Maricopa Co., AZ; never married; d. 26 Apr 1979, Los Angeles Co., CA; buried Westminster Memorial Park, Westminster, Orange Co., CA.
Lillian was a school teacher for much of her life. She wrote a biography of her grandfather Benjamin Potter's experiences in the Civil War in Jackson Co., Missouri which was published by the The Westport Historical Society and can be read at: http://erazone.com/family/family.htm

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4. Susan Frances Cave, b. 2 Sep 1846, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. Mar 1877, probably Jackson Co., MO to Sidney Milton Simmons.

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5. Allie [Ella] Evaline Cave, b. 22 Aug 1848, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 17 Nov 1867, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO to John C. Potter [b. 12 Mar 1840, Bedford, Lawrence Co., IN; d. 10 Apr 1889, Lone Jack, MO; son of Benjamin Potter and Mary Hays]; she d. 3 Mar 1923, Lone Jack, MO; buried Lone Jack cemetery.

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6. Matilda Ann Cave, b. 23 Nov 1850, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 23 Oct 1870, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO to Joseph K. Reid [son of Joseph and Lucy Ann (German) Reed]; she d. 4 Mar 1938, Tarzana, Los Angeles Co., CA; buried Lone Jack cemetery.

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7. Berilda Temple Cave, b. 3 Mar 1856, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 13 Mar 1879 to Elijah Simmons, [b. 1851, MO; d. 26 Apr 1924, Johnson Co., MO; the son of Sidney Madison Simmons and Sarah Botts]; she d. 13 Mar 1922, MO; buried Lone Jack cemetery.

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8. John Bartlett Cave, b. Feb 1859, Lone Jack, Jackson Co., MO; m. 5 Aug 1886, Independence, Jackson Co., MO to Virginia Sims [b. Sep 1851 VA; daughter of Mary ____ b. Jan 1828 VA]; he d. 1925, Ellis Co., KS.

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9. William J. Cave , "Willy", b. 6 Nov 1863, Dover, Johnson Co., MO; m. 12 Feb 1890, Independance, MO to Mattie Shawhan [b. 6 Jul 1860 KY; d. 22 Apr 1934, Lee's Summit, Jackson Co., MO; buried Lee's Summit Cemetery; d/o William Shawhan of KY and Eliza Lloyd]; he d. 6 Jan 1946, Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO; buried Lee's Summit Cemetery.