Oscar F. Canfield is one of the venerable and honored citizens of Washington, living in Clarkston. Moreover, no history of the state would be complete without extended reference to him, for he was one of the survivors of the Whitman massacre of 1847 and every phase of the state's development and progress from that time to the present is familiar to him. He has passed the eightieth milestone on life's journey, his birth having occurred in Pennsylvania on the 8th of March, 1838. His parents were W. D. and Sally Ann (Lee) Canfield, both of whom were natives of Bennington county, Vermont. The father was a blacksmith by trade and followed that pursuit in early manhood but afterward took up the business of farming and stock raising and also engaged in mining. In 1847 the father was one of those wounded and left for dead in the Whitman massacre, but life had not departed and he made his escape to Lapwai to the mission of Mr. Spalding. A courier was sent to Vancouver with dispatches for Peter Skeen Ogden, then chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company at Vancouver. Mr. Ogden immediately manned three batteaus and came to Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia, where he bought seven women and thirty-two children from the Indians, paying for them on delivery, thus freeing those who had been captured by the red men.
On New Year's day of 1848 the Canfield family embarked for Vancouver in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company and were turned over to Governor Abernethy at Oregon City. They lived in Polk county, Oregon, until March, 1849, and then went to California in the gold stampede. They mined in Nevada that summer but afterward returned to Sonoma county. The mines were very rich at that period, but Mr. Canfield did not know how to mine, nor had he anything to mine with.
Oscar F. Canfield took up the occupation of mining with the removal of the family to Sonoma county, California, although a boy of but eleven years, and as he remarks, if he then knew what he now knows about mines and mining, he would have been many times a millionaire. In 1862 he started with Captain Gilliam's company for the Florence stampede in Idaho. Captain Gilliam was a brother of General Cornelius Gilliam, who distinguished himself in the Seminole war in Florida and was accidentally shot in 1848 in the Cayuse war. His death was a great loss to Oregon, as he was an experienced Indian fighter. He had several children, living in and around Walla Walla. The party with which Mr. Canfield traveled did not get to Florence, Idaho. They struck gold at Canyon City, Oregon, and Mr. Canfield held the pan while Captain Gilliam filled it. He then panned out the gold and there seemed to be fine prospects there. They reached Canyon City on the 9th of June, 1862, and that district afterward proved to be a very rich camp. The first gold discovered on Prichard creek was found by Jim Prichard, Bill Gerard and Oscar F. Canfield. The gold which they found, when weighed, was equal to a dollar and seventy-five cents. It was this which started the Coeur d'Alene stampede. It was Bill Sutherland and Charley Toole who discovered the Galena ore in the Sunset mountain and it was Mr. Canfield who grubstaked them. In 1862 Mr. Canfield was one of a company of thirty-five men who made their way northward from California to Florence, Idaho, where there was great excitement concerning gold discoveries. In the party were several noted early pioneers, including Mr. McGruder, who was afterward ambushed and murdered. To the party also belonged Captain Gilliam, who was subsequently killed in the Cayuse Indian war and left a number of descendants in Old Walla Walla. It was at Florence, Idaho, that Mr. Canfield found the first gold there discovered. There were several companies of men who came up from California at that time, including the following captains with their companies: Captain Killgore, Joel Walker and Charles Hooper. Mr. Canfield lived in the Snake River and in the Salmon River country for a number of years and later at Canfield, Idaho, a town named in his honor. He there followed mining, ranching and stock raising and thus in various localities was closely and prominently identified with pioneer development.
In November, 1861, in California, Mr. Canfield was united in marriage to Miss Ann Maple, a native of Ohio, and to them were born seven children: Augusta, who married Isaac Cooper; Sherman, who died in 1914; Mary, who became the wife of William Farrell; Bert, a stock man of Big Hole Basin of Montana; Oliver, deceased; Joseph, who is with his brother in Big Hole Basin, Montana; and Mrs. Lottie Jasper, who lives in Los Angeles, California.
In politics, in early manhood, Mr. Canfield was identified with the know knothing party. This was before the republican party had been organized or the present democratic party had formulated its platform. The basic principle of the know knothing party was that a foreigner must live here for twenty-one years before he could become a citizen and enjoy the voting benefits and privileges of an American-born citizen. He is proud of his political affiliation with that party and says he is still an advocate thereof. Mr. Canfield was on one occasion connected with an Indian ring hunt which took place in 1878 at Hayden Lake, near Coeur d'Alene. He was with a party of Indians who gathered in a horseshoe circle, the chief at one end and a noted Indian runner of that day, named Fleetfoot, on the other end of the horseshoe circle, their purpose being to hunt deer. They started one morning at eight o'clock and finished at three in the afternoon. One leader was on the canyon side of the circle and the other on the lake side. They would run the deer, drawing them into their circle. They ran hundreds in that way and killed one hundred and forty on that hunt or on the one drive, as it was called. Mr. Canfield can relate many most interesting incidents of the pioneer times, his memory forming a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present. He has contributed much to the development of the west through his business activity and enterprise and at all times he has stood for progress and advancement.
FRANK T. KEISER.
Frank T. Keiser, of Waitsburg, is one of the most prominent, progressive and extensive farmers of Walla Walla county, owning seventeen hundred and seventy acres of the finest wheat land to be found in this section of the state. In addition he leases and controls one thousand acres and thus his agricultural interests are most important. He was born in Clackamas county, Oregon, September 3, 1856, and is a son of William and Roxcie (Ingalls) Keiser, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work.
The public schools of Walla Walla and Clackamas counties afforded him his educational privileges, as at the age of sixteen years he accompanied his parents on their removal from Oregon to Walla Walla county, Washington. He remained at home through the period of his boyhood and youth, assisting in the work of the farm, and was thus engaged up to the time of his marriage, which was celebrated January 1, 1880, when Miss Cora B. Dickinson, a daughter of Abraham C. Dickinson, became his wife. She was born at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, while her parents were crossing the plains, in 1863. Following his marriage Mr. Keiser began farming on a homestead in Spring Valley which he had previously filed on. He had also filed and proved up on a preemption and had filed on a timber claim. He continued to live upon his farm for seven or eight years, after which he removed to Waitsburg, where he has since made his home. For several years he has operated farm lands from this point and his holdings are now very extensive, for he owns seventeen hundred and seventy acres of the finest wheat land in the county and has leased and cultivated another tract of one thousand acres. He is thus most extensively engaged in farming and the magnitude of his operations is an indication of the nature of his success. He is familiar with every phase of wheat culture in the Inland Empire and his wise and careful management of his business affairs has brought splendid results. In addition to his other interests Mr. Keiser is a stockholder in the Exchange Bank of Waitsburg.