E. D. Canfield, of the firm of Canfield & Hobbs, dealers in general merchandise, was born in Essex County, N. Y., in the spring of 1848, and came to Waukesha, County, Wis., in 1858; came to Decatur and worked at the carpenter trade two or three years; he then worked on a contract in building four or five houses on the agency. He was then appointed Assistant Engineer at the Omaha Agency Mills; held that position three and a half years; then removed to Omaha, and clerked in a store fifteen months at $100 a month; he then bought a farm of 120 acres two miles south of Decatur, which he has since improved, working on this farm in the summers and clerking in Omaha about three and a half winters. After living on this farm about three years longer, after repeated solicitations from Bishop Hase, he, with his wife, removed to Dakota Territory and taught school there four years. He was then urgently requested by the Commissioners of Indian Affairs to go about two hundred miles north in the Territory, and take charge of their school. After remaining there about one month his wife died. He soon after resigned his position and returned to Decatur, September 1881, and became a member of this firm.
