Cyrus W. Canfield

CYRUS W. CANFIELD, one of the representative agriculturists of Cass Township, Hancock County, O., and a well known and valued citizen of a section in which his life has been mainly spent, owns 160 acres of valuable land which lies partly in Cass and partly in Allen Township. He was born on this farm, in the old log house which was the pioneer home of the family, January 23, 1845, and is a son of Elijah C. and Sarah (Weiss) Canfield, a grandson of Eli B. and Johanna (Wright) Canfield, and a great-grandson of Elijah Canfield.

The first Elijah Canfield was born in England but he evidently was brought early to the American colonies and the family record tells of his becoming a soldier in the Revolutionary War when a youth of fourteen years and of his being held in such favor by the great commander that he was made one of Gen. Washington’s body guards. He spent his closing years in Ohio and died in Portage County when within six years of the century mark. The name of his wife has not been preserved but he had three sons and three daughters born to him.

Eli B. Canfield, grandfather of Cyrus W. Canfield, was the eldest of the above six children and he was born in one of the mountainous counties of the State of New York. After the War of 1812, in which he possibly took part, he moved to Ohio and settled in Portage County. From there, in 1836, he moved to Hancock County and located in the deep woods in Cass Township, with his nearest neighbor fully a mile distant. Subsequently he sold that farm and in 1846 moved to Michigan, where he bought a quarter section of land and resided there until the time of his death, just prior to the opening of the Civil War, when aged seventy-six years. His old age thus was preserved from the grief that would have fallen on him had he known that within a few years one of his stalwart sons, Elanson, would have died on the field of battle, suffering from fourteen wounds made by Confederate bullets. His widow survived him six years, dying also in Michigan. They had eleven children, five of whom survived infancy, namely: Murwim, Elijah Cyrus, Harry, Elanson and Harriet. The only one yet living is Elijah Cyrus, the venerable father of Cyrus W. Canfield.

Elijah Cyrus Canfield comes of a long lived family. He was born September 14, 1820, in Portage County, O., and was only a boy when the family came in its covered wagon to Hancock County, an ox-team drawing the same safely over the rough unsettled country. In those early days in Cass Township, schools had not yet been generally established and he was so eager to gain some book knowledge that he attended a subscription school for three months after he was twenty-one years of age and paid for the instruction himself. As soon as he was old enough he went into the woods and did his share of clearing, working over many acres. About the time of his marriage he bought the farm of forty acres on which he still lives, from his father, and was, in his prime, probably the equal of any farmer in this section. He also followed threshing for a number of years and in his work, while active, was more or less associated with his son, Cyrus W. He has always been a Democrat and still deems it his duty to exercise his right of citizenship. Mr. Canfield is the oldest resident of Cass Township.

Elijah Cyrus Canfield has been twice married. On February 27, 1844, he was united with Sarah Weiss, who left three children at her decease some years later, namely: Cyrus W.; Mary, who became the wife of William Gassman, and they have five children — Charles, James, Philip, William and Minnie; and Ella Jane, who married Warren Albertson and they have two children — William and Lillian. On December 25, 1884, Mr. Canfield was married again, this time to Mrs. Sarah Weiss, widow of Reuben Weiss and daughter of Samuel and Mary (McDougal) Edgar. No children were born to Mr. Canfield to this union but Mrs. Weiss had eight children born to her former marriage: Graig, Mary, Lavina, Sarah, Melissa, Alta, and three that died in infancy.

Cyrus W. Canfield obtained a district school education. He has always lived on his present farm but also has a home in the South, where he spends his winters. He assisted his father for many years and for fifty years followed threshing as a business, beginning with the old horse-power thresher, he and his father owning the first machine of the kind in Hancock County and they operated with it for twenty-three seasons. Later improved machinery was purchased and when Mr. Canfield retired from the business he owned modern equipments. At different times he has made improvements on his property and his comfortable residence is a well arranged eight-room house.

Mr. Canfield was married to Miss Maria Ames, a daughter of Milton Ames, and they have two children: Sadie and William. The former is the wife of J. C. Kissell and they have three children: Treasure, Paul and Ruby. Mr. and Mrs. Kissell live in Allen Township, Hancock County. William Canfield is a resident of Wood County. He married Bertha Huffman and they have two children: Orpha and Fay. Mr. Canfield, like his father, is a

Democrat and at different times he has served as school director and supervisor.

As printed in Twentieth century history of Findlay and Hancock County and representative citizens (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.