Charles M. Cain,  manager of the Peden Iron and Steel Company, of San Antonio, Texas, is a fair example of the success that a young man in a progressive and live state like Texas, can accomplish. Mr. Cain started in a very humble position with the great firm in which he now holds so important a position and by hard work and attention to his business and that enthusiasm which swept everyone with him, he succeeded in advancing himself to his present position. He is not so engrossed in his business that he has not time to devote to other matters and he is especially prominent in anything that is to benefit the city where he has had his success. He is extremely public spirited and willing to give of his time and brains to advance the prosperity of San Antonio at all times. Since he is as yet a young man the future appears very bright for him.

Charles M. Cain was born in Calvert, Robertson county, Texas, in 1882, the son of Dr. W. H. Cain and Lizzie (Briscoe) Cain. Dr. Cain was born in Mississippi and although he was a mere boy at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war, he enlisted in the Confederate army and rendered gallant service throughout the war. Shortly after the war he came to Texas and located at Calvert. He is a dentist by profession and has been engaged in the practice of his profession in Calvert for many years. Mrs. Calvert is a member of the prominent Tennessee family of Briscoes, her brothers being proprietors of the large wholesale dry goods house of Briscoe Brothers at Knoxville.

Charles M. Cain was educated in the public schools of Calvert, Texas, but he left school at an early age and went to Houston to seek his fortune. He became an employee in the stock room of the Peden Iron and Steel Company of that city in 1903, and on account of his diligence, conscientious attention to the work he was given to do, and unusual capacity for learning the business, he was promoted with a rapidity quite out of the ordinary. He was soon placed on the road as a salesman, the center of his territory being San Antonio, which consequently became his headquarters. In 1910 his house established a branch in San Antonio, and in recognition of Mr. Cain's achievements he was made manager of this establishment. The business of the company in this territory had been entirely built up through the efforts of Mr. Cain and although he was a young man he had had much experience and was thoroughly acquainted with the ground. . He started out in San Antonio in a small building on South Flores street, fifty feet in length, but his trade grew so rapidly that in the next year an addition was built increasing the store length to one hundred and fifty feet. A short time later this was further increased to three hundred feet, and then the growth of the business made it necessary for the company to lease larger buildings and grounds and in 1913 work was begun on the new structure for this branch house. The buildings are to be situated on a tract of ground four blocks long, located on the west side of South Flores street, near the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad tracks. This will be a modern building of reinforced concrete and will be equipped with automatic sprinklers. Mr. Cain was made a director of the company about a year ago.

The Peden Iron and Steel Company is one of the largest concerns of its kind in the south, capitalized at a million dollars and is notable for the remarkable success it has had in the business world, rising in a comparatively short time from a humble position in the business world to its present influential and prosperous one. It was established in 1890 by E. A. Peden, who has been at the head of the concern ever since and to whom is due in large measure the credit for building the company up to its present size. He is one of the most prominent and public spirited citizens of Houston, being president of its chamber of commerce and holding other important public positions. The company does a general wholesale business in hardware and supplies, covering an extensive territory in this section of the United States. Mr. Cain has four brothers and one sister, as follows: Dr. W. Briscoe Cain, Mrs. Lizzie Townsend, C. D. Cain, P. J. Cain and Grover C. Cain.

Although a very busy man. deeply interested in the development of his business, Mr. Cain has always taken the time to devote much attention to aiding the growth and prosperity of the city in every way within his power. Just as one example of the many that might be given of his activity along this line: In 1912 Mr. Cain undertook to help raise the bonus of fifty thousand dollars for the building of a railroad to Fredericksburg, and succeeded in raising the largest amount of this bonus, and as a reward for this one of the new towns on the road was named in his honor and known as Cain City.