David Canfield and Elizabeth Story Depew Canfield

Paternal Grandparents
by James Willard Canfield

My paternal grandfather, David Canfield, was born on May 9, 1812, in Gorham (Ontario County), New York, the son of James Canfield and Susanna Blake Canfield. Not much is known about his childhood, youth and early manhood. A brief reference indicated that he moved to Toronto, Canada, and married an Irish girl, Sally Mathison, about 1833. Two children were born in Candada, but no information is available as to what happend to this marriage and the two daughters, Jane and Susanna. [Preston Hunt later researched this line and has more information on this little family]. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1836. (It is possible that his conversion to the Mormon religion caused a divorce; this is mere conjecture on my part). Reliable data indicates that he came back to the United States and was baptized in 1843 by Parley P. Pratt.
He was married to my grandmother, Elizabeth Story Depew, on October 1, 1843, but records are not clear as to where they were married. She was the daughter of John Horace Depew and Lucy Lonsberre Roberts Depew, and was born on July 10, 1825, in Lysander, New York. The first of their ten children, David Jr., was born July 25, 1844, in Defiance, Ohio, and Ellen Elizabeth was born on April 1, 1846, in Chicago, Illinois, followed by Moroni on February 5, 1848.
Grandfather went to Nauvoo in 1845 and helped to finish up the Temple as far as it was completed. My grandparents did not join the first movement to Utah, but came there in 1850 and settled in Provo where my father, James Canfield, was born on October 9, 1850. The next five children were also born in Provo: Lucy Philena, January 21, 1853; Parley Pratt, July 24, 1855; Lyman, December 19, 1857; Harriet Alma, April 5, 1859 (died in infancy); and Clara, November 12, 1861. Their tenth child, Alice Lillian (Aunt Allie), was born in Pine Valley, Utah, on October 28, 1864.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Brigham Young was afraid that Utah would not be able to secure cotton, and knew that southern Utah, because of the climate and productive land, was suitable to grow cotton. This was the pirmary purpose of colonizing St. George. Men of various occupations were selected to insure a resourceful personnel, and David Canfield, who was a skilled carpenter, was called. The family moved to St. George and Grandfather helped build the Jacob Hamblin home in Santa Clara, Utah, late in 1861. He also did considerable work on the St. George Temple which was the first temple finished by the Mormons in Utah.
While I can state with some conviction that my grandparents were obedient Church members and came to southern Utah because they were so ordered by the Church authorities, they were a bit resentful that they lost their fine property acquired in Provo. Evidently Grandfather resented the continual control of local Church authorities, because he moved his family to a place called "The Foster Ranch" on the Santa Clara River, twenty-four miles north of St. George before 1864, where they raised fruit, vegetables and a few cattle. Sometime in the late sixties they moved to Hamblin, utah, their last home, and where I entered the picture and my first memories began.
Grandfather was a big man; he stood over six feet and weighed better than 200 pounds. He was quiet spoken and an agreeable, non-aggressive neighbor, From Father I later acquired the information that Grandfather had been very active in all physical activities. Father told me that at one time Grandfather walked from St. George to their dwelling on the Santa Clara Creek, a distance over twenty miles, carrying a huge brass kettle.
I remember Grandfather best as he sat in the big rocker, which he had constructed, and read the paper and smoked his corn cob pipe. Although the Mormon Church considered the use of tabacco an evil, Grandfather had acquired the habit before he joined the Church and found considerable comfort smoking his pipe. The tobacco was cut from a plug or roll of tobacco leaf, on a pine board made for that purpose. On one occasion, mary Sinfield, a neighbor my age, and I sat on the floor close to Grandfather's chair. We picked up small portions of the tobacco that occasionally fell when being cut, and ate the same. It had a sweet flavor; I presume it had been flavored. The out-come was that I became violently ill and lost my dinner, while the tough girl Mary weathered the experience without illness.
During the year of 1896, when he was in his eighty-fourth year, I remember that Grandfather Canfield was quite inactive. His physical activity consisted of chopping wood, and building fires around the outdoor kettle used for heating water for washing clothes and cooking food for the pigs. The pig pens at the back of the lot were of interest to me because of the litter of young pigs that frequently came in the springtime, and I helped when some of the pink-nose squealling midgets escaped from the pen through cracks in the logs and then had trboule finding their way back. The pigs were fed quantities of green weeks, green alfalfa, and cooked potatoes and wheat. The huge brass outdoor kettle would be filled with a mixture of small potatoes (culled out when picked in the fall and placed in a separate cellar) and wheat. The children were not opposed to dipping out a few clean potatoes and a cup of well cooked wheat and eating the same. We relished the dish when mixed with good milk and molasses; the molasses was obtained from Utah's Dixie where it was made from sugar cane.
The slaughtering of beef and pigs was supervised by Granfather Canfield. Beek was killed in the winter time when it could be frozen and hung high on the north side of the house. Pigs were raised for fresh meat and cured side bacon and hams which, when placed in large oak barrels in a strong salt solution for several weeks and then hung up to dry, would keep over the summer.
I remember once watching Grandfather as he gathered an armful of wood to carry to the back porch and I was alarmed when he stumbled over the chopping block and fell. He did not move for a moment or two and then could not get up. I ran for Grandmother; she, in turn, called for Father who came to Granfather's assistance. his last illness of four weeks was severe, but he bore this suffering patiently and went to his rest in Hamblin on May 8, 1897, leaving a record of a man who never failed to respond to the call of God's servants and who was ever true to the trust reposed in him.
In many respects, Grandmother Canfield was a stronger character than Grandfather. She was a medium sized women with a tremendous amount of mental and physical energy. She was neat and attractive, with a pleasing manner thant endeared her to all close friends and accosicates, and attracted frquent visitors. For years travelers stopped at her place for meals and lodging. The number that could be served was restricted to four or five because of lack of sleeping accomodations, but any larger groups were the exception in those days. After the railroads reached Modena, Utah, most of the freight and passenger service from St. George and vicinity came through Hamblin and Granmother sold hay and grain for the stage and freight teams. This of course provided extra pennies and she was thrifty. By saving over a period of time she accumulated enough for her to take the train to the Chicago World Fair in 1893. I cannot remember the event, but many times later I listed to her accounts of what she saw and who she met in Chicago. The bi-weekly mail occasionally brought newspapers and letters from her former home.
Grandmother was intelligent and resourceful. For years she was the post-mistress of Hamblin. Grandpa built her a carpet loom and every year or so it was put up in the north end of the long kitchen and new rugs and carpets were woven. All pieces of good cloth were saved, and sometimes colored to add to the artistic effect. Mother went there frequently to help and also fashion one to her liking.
They also made candles from tallow which were used especially in the three bedrooms. Grandfather made a cheese press which sat out by the porch, and I remember the cheese making process. Aunt Libby Canfield, Uncle Lyman's wife, fell heir to the press and made cheese and occasionally sold some of it. I learned to milk cows at five years of age, but my small hands seemed to be capable of milking only two cows each morning and evening.
After we moved from hablin I frequently would spend two or three days with Grandmother. She was quite proud of her maiden name, Depew, but I cannot recall her genealogy background. (However, I have always been of the opinion that Chauncy M. Depew, the lawyer nd famous after-dinner speaker, was a close relative). Grandmother Canfield died on June 5, 1908, in Cedar City and was buried in Hamblin.