San Benito County CA Obituary Project Obituaries.....CANFIELD, R. W. October 30 1900
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Susan Cherry-Boyer SueBdoo4me@netscape.net December 19, 2004, 10:25 am

The Free Lance
Friday November 2, 1900

CANFIELD--At San Juan, Oct. 30, 1900, R.W. Canfield, a native of Louisiana,
aged 80 years.
[Deceased was one of the earliest settlers in this county, having located near
San Juan in 1858. He was born in New Orleans in 1820. His father, R.F. Canfield,
who was a merchant by occupation, and lived during President Jackson's
administration, was active in political matters, and held the office of
Appraiser at the port of New Orleans. Deceased's great grandfather, James
Canfield, was a native of Virginia, a patriot of the Revolution, and a graduate
of Princeton College. He developed into an itinerant clergyman of Elizabethtown,
New Jersey, serving in the Revolutionary Army as a chaplain and soldier. He was
killed by a sentinel in June 1780. Mr. Canfield's grandfather was locally
prominent as an advocate of the principles upon which American independence was
founded. His home was at Morris Plains and there he pursued his occupation of
farming. Mr. Canfield's father left his native State when about eighteen years
of age, and located in Louisiana. He gained practice and experience in
mercantile business while in a firm of that description: became a widely-known
merchant and lived and died in New Orleans. Deceased left New Orleans for
Illinois, and located on a prairie farm in Sangamon county, nine miles west of
Springfield, on Spring Creek, where he lived for several years. He came to
California in the fall of 1850, and after a brief stay in San Francisco he
located a claim on Mountain View, in Santa Clara county.
His claim covered the site of the present town, to which he gave its name. He
lived there until the spring of 1858, when, owing to some defect in the title to
the land, he abandoned his claim and located on the ranch near San Juan, where
he lived up to his death last Tuesday.  His place at San Juan, comprising some
200 acres, is one of the finest estates in this county.
Deceased was married at the age of 21 years to Miss Frances A. Bowers, of North
Hampton, Massachusetts. She died in 1872, leaving a family of six children, all
settled in life. Deceased, all his life, was an active business man, fully alive
to everything pertaining to the interests of the community in which he made his
home. He was a man of genial characteristics, ever ready with a kind word and
cheery greeting for anyone he met. His beautiful home was the rallying point for
a large circle of devoted friends who will sadly miss his cheerful presence. He
was a man of inflexible honor and integrity, and in his death San Benito county
loses a true and worthy citizen.]


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