| Biographical | | Biographical article for Henry Canaday. HENRY CANADAY.
Henry Canaday was a native of North Carolina who moved north, with his family, in the fall of 1820, and stopped over winter in Wayne County, Indiana. Two of his sons came on over the state line and put up a cabin in what is now the southern part of Vermilion County. His four sons were Benjamin, Frederich, William and John. The entire family took possession of the round log cabin which the two sons had built, and began their new life without neighbors other than the Indians who camped on the banks of the Little Vermilion in the spring of the year to hunt and fish. They would visit the cabin to beg and steal and trade but never seriously annoyed them.
There were many sugar-maple trees on the land the Canadays had chosen for their home and they made sugar that first spring, but they were not contented and Benjamin returned to Tennessee, where their old home had been, and bought a farm. Soon the entire family returned to their old home but it was to stay only during the summer. They sold their property in Tennessee and returned to their cabin on the Little Vermilion river before winter. This was the fall of 1821 and their cabin was on what was yet unorganized territory attached to Edgar County. They had much sickness during this winter, having come from a different climate, and the nearest physician was at Clinton, Indiana. They had to go to mill on Raccoon Creek in Park County, Indiana, and Terre Haute was the nearest trading point. They had no horses when spring came and they broke ground with oxen. Wild deer was plentiful and they filled the smokehouse soon after they came with deer hams, and also had plenty of pork. When they first came the year before, they brought thirty hogs with them from Indiana and when they went back to Tennessee they left them in the woods. These animals lived in the woods and became so wild as to be a menace to stock for years afterward. Wild game was plentiful and deer, turkey and other fowl gave them a variety of food. The entire family occupied the one roomed cabin for some time, and the mother did the cooking by the fireplace; the floor was of puncheon, the roof of clapboards, held down with weight poles and the stick and clay chimney was built on the outside.
About the second year of their living at this place, Henry Canaday, together with George Haworth, "set up a meeting," as it is called by the Society of Friends, when a new church was established. These two men and others who came afterwards to the neighborhood, built a log cabin in which they had meetings and later built a church of hewed logs. Sometimes the attendance was so small that Henry Canaday and his son, Benjamin, would go to "meeting" and sit through the hour alone, in order to keep up the church organization as was the demand of that society.
Henry Canaday was very prominent in the life of the growing Vermilion County. He entered about two sections of land as soon as it came into market, and sold it off to new comers. Henry Canaday was a tanner and a blacksmith, and as soon as possible after the family came to their new home they managed to establish both trades. He could the better do this because of his four grown sons. He started a tanyard in which his son William worked, and also a tinshop for his son Benjamin. William later carried on harness making and sadlery but his father, Henry Canaday, never had that trade.
Benjamin Canaday, the oldest son of Henry Canaday, was a tinner by trade and during the winter of the big snow (1830), he made up a stock of tin ware and traded it off at Louisville for goods. These he brought back with him and put into a building he had put up for a store on his farm just west of Vermilion, (later Vermilion Grove), on the Hickory Grove road. This was the beginning of his career as a merchant. He sold goods here for several years before going to Georgetown where he became the largest, and at one time, the most successful merchant.
Frederick Canaday, the second son of Henry Canaday, made a valuable farm just north of Vermilion station where he spent his life. He was the father of four sons and three daughters. His sons, William, Henry, Isaac and John, grew to manhood and settled around him. His daughters who became Mrs. Lawrence, Mrs. Patterson and Mrs. Ankrum, went the one to Kansas, the other to Bethel and the third lived near her father.
William Canaday, the third son of Henry Canaday, married Miss Mary Haworth, in 1831, who was the daughter of William Haworth. They were the parents of ten children. These children settled in different parts of the country, a number of them near their parents' home. Mrs. Mary (Haworth) Canaday died in 1855 and Mr. Canaday married Miss Elizabeth Diament, in 1873, for his second wife.
John Canaday, the youngest son of Henry Canaday, lived all his life on the farm on the state road between Vermilion and Georgetown. He had a good farm and was a prosperous farmer. He was the father of five sons and two daughters. The Canaday family have been strong factors in the development of the county. His family of sons with their families of sons and daughters have made the name one of honor and pride in this section which Henry Canaday found a wilderness.3 |
| Biographical | | Biographical article for Henry Canaday. Henry Canaday came from Tennessee to the Wabash in 1821; his boys, Benjamin, Frederick, William and John coming here in the winter and making a cabin three hundred yards west of where William has so long resided. They brought a few hogs with- them, but when spring came they sickened of the enterprise, and Benjamin went back to Tennessee and bought a farm there, and all moved back. In the fall thev regretted the move and came back here to live. Satisfied with their roving, they settled down to business and remained here. The hogs they brought first had become wild by the time they got back here, and for years they and their progeny furnished hunting in connection with the other "game" here. On their return they brought a few cattle with them, and hunted in a few hogs to give them a start. When they returned here to live, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Bocke and the Hoskins children had come, none of whom remained here, and John Mills was farther west. The land-office was at Palestine, and when land came into market Mr. Canaday entered about two sections, and made it his practice to sell to new-comers at congress price with interest.4 |