Person:Charles Canaday (9)

About Charles Canaday

(Taken from Henry County Historicalog ²)

Charles Canaday, the middle child of John and Margaret Canaday, grew up and married in North Carolina. He was born "near Beard's Hatter Shop" in Guildord County, grew up on his father's farm and learned the cooper's trade, which he practiced in early life along with farming.

His marriage to Sarah Russell, one of the six children of Habakkuk and Ann Russell, took place in April, 1794. She was not a Quaker and in November of that year the minutes of the New Garden Meeting state that: "Charles Canaday is gone out in marriage for which misconduct we disown him from being any longer a member of our Society, until he condemns the same to the satisfaction of this meeting." Ten months later it is recorded that "Charles Canaday appeared and offered a paper condemning his outgoing, which was accepted."

Despite the bumpy start, the marriage was fruitful. Between 1795 and 1817 they produced 10 children, all but one of whom were born in East Tennessee to which they had migrated about two years after getting married. Added to this large brood was Davy Crockett, who previously had been living with Charles' father. Crockett stayed with them several years, probably until he was 17 or 18 years of age.

Canaday bought land in 1798, the deed for which reads in apart as follows: "...for consideration of 160 pounds have sold to Charles Kenedy a tract of 200 acres more or less, lying in the County of Jefferson, beginning at a post oak then east 340 poles to a mulberry, thence west 49 poles to a mulberry, thence west 44 to a dead poplar, then northwest 106 poles to a hickory, then southwest 39 poles to a stake, then northwest 66 poles to a post oak, thence a direct line to the beginning, said land lying on the water of Holston River." (A pole was an early unit of measure equaling a rod, or 16 feet). With such descriptions, is it any wonder that boundaries often were brought into question? What would happen if those marker trees were to blow down or be confused with others of like species?

One other tract of 114 acres was purchased later and a substantial amount of livestock accumulated before it all was sold in 1816 when the family decided to move to east-central Indiana. It was a propitious time as Indiana became a state that year, the last of the serious Indian problems had been resolved and Congress had passed an act for the sale of lands "north of the River Ohio". Charles Canaday took advantage of this to acquire a quarter section of land covered with timber west of the present-day town of Richmond. They proceeded to clear off a place for a home and garden patch; several more years were required to clear the remaining woods to ultimately create a productive farm. He lived on this farm until his death in 1851 at age 81. His wife Sarah had passed away a year earlier at 74. Charles and Sarah had an enormous number of grandchildren, at least 60 from the seven of their children for whom offspring can be ascertained. His namesake son Charles, who weighed 300 pounds, produced 14 with a non-Quaker wife. (He was, of course, excommunicated) (Taken from: A Family History, by Donovan Faust)

John's son Charles married Sarah Russell in 1794 during the family's sojourn in Tennessee. Charles was disowned by the Friends for marrying in a civil ceremony, but he acknowledged his error two years later and returned to the Quaker fold. He and his family accompanied his father to Indiana about 1816. Charles died in Wayne County in 1851.

Charles and Sarah Russell Canaday had ten children.

1. ↑ A. Donovan Faust (Foust). A Family History: The Ancestors of Thomas Wilson Faust. (1997).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Family Recorded, in Thomas D. Hamm & Mary Louise Reynolds. The Henry County Historicalog,. (Volume 29, Number 1, Spring 2001)
   pp 12-17.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Family Recorded, in Hinshaw, William Wade; Thomas Worth Marshall; and John Cox. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. (Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States: Edwards Brothers, 1936-1950).

   [NEW GARDEN MONTHLY MEETING - BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS] - Vol 1, p 493 -
   
   Page 25.
   John Canaday
   Margaret Canaday
   Ch:
   - Phebe b. 1-10-1765.
   - Henry b. 6-29-1766.
   - Bowater b. 5-14-1766.
   - Chearls [sic] b. 4-18-1770.
   - Walter b. 12-19-1771.
   - John b. 4-13-1774.
   - Robert b. 1-13-1777.
   
   --------------------
   [NEW GARDEN MONTHLY MEETING - MEETING RECORDS] - Vol 1, p 530 -
   
   CANADAY.
   1794, 11, 29. Charles (Cannaday) [s John] dis mou. [disowned for marrying out of unity]
   1796, 7, 30. Charles, Jr. con his outgoings.