In 1854, Orville left his family and farm in Springville (land which later became part of Buffalo), Erie Co., NY, adventured across the Isthmus of Panama, and went on to California by steamer. He remained in California for three years, mining, carpentering, operating a mail-express route from Marysville to Downieville, and returned to NY in 1857.
In 1863, Orville sold the farm and prepared to move his family west. He went ahead by boat from Buffalo to Milwaukee and Sally and the children followed a few weeks later to La Crosse, WI, the then end of the railroad. They then traveled by prairie schooner an additional 200 miles and lived on a rented farm at Midway, Trempeleau Co., WI, for one year.
In 1864, they moved south close to the town of Janesville, Waseca Co., MN, where they established themselves on land the Government had opened for settlement. Here Orville lived the remainder of his life, dying in 1891. Here also Sally stayed, outliving him by 18 years.
203MN 1870 Federal Census Index: CANFIELD, Orville S.; Waseca Co., Freedom Township; ID#MNS7a822786, page 014
From the book: “CHARLES ADELBERT CANFIELD” by Casper Whitney, published by D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston (Privately Published) 1930:
Orville S., ... born and bred of farmer parents whose own folks had always lived on the land, was less farmer than dreamer. He was a man of intellectual quality, a deacon in the church, a sometime surveyor, to whom books - the journeyings they recounted, the dreams they stimulated - offered at once a release and a pursuit more congenial than cultivation of the soil which held no appeal for him whatever, although he was fond of animals and so good a judge of horse-flesh as to be reckoned among the keenest and most reliable of traders, an avocation diligently pursued and highly respected in his day and generation.
His wife, Sally Briggs, the mother of their eight children and also raised on the land, was, however, of quite opposite temperament. Small of frame but big in spirit, she was an alert, shrewd, energetic woman of sound practical sense and good judgment. She liked the land, she knew farming from beans to wheat, and it was largely her initiative, her intelligent interest and understanding, that kept the farm wheels moving until Charlie was old enough to take hold; later, after he resigned control, it was her competence which maintained order and success.
Orville wrote some, read a great deal, had a wellchosen library-quite an unusual possession in those days and parts-and an imagination which soared beyond the narrow confines of his home environment. Thus he was ripe for the adventure of gold-seeking when the dramatic stories of its discovery drifted back from California to inflame the entire countryside, and in 1854 he broke away from the soil, adventured across the Isthmus of Panama and went on to California by steamer as a first step in his search for the open spaces and the hidden treasure.
Three years he remained in the Golden State, mining, carpentering, operating a mail-express route from Marysville to Downieville, and returned to New York in 1857 no better off in worldly goods but enriched by an experience that no longer left him content to -settle down within the limited boundaries of an upstate farm. It had been his intention to return when he left California, but relatives so stoutly opposed taking the family to such "wild" country that he relinquished the idea and fell again into the humdrum beat of his former life.
But a, memory of the wider horizon haunted him and in another few years, 1863, he disposed of his farm, and with as much of their household belongings as they could manage the family joined that pioneer band of the best blood America has ever produced, then facing toward a land of promise in the unbroken boundless West.
Orville went on ahead by boat from Buffalo to Milwaukee, and the mother with the children followed a few weeks later to La Crosse, Wisconsin, the then end of railroads, from where they traveled in a "prairie schooner," making their slow, jolting and wearisome way two hundred miles farther West into country as nearly unsettled and practically as undeveloped as the greater plains at the foot of the Rockies.
For a year they lived on a rented farm at Midway, Trempeleau County, Wisconsin, but in the spring of 1864 moved south close to the town of Janesville, Waseca County, Minnesota, where they established themselves on land the Government had thrown open for settlement. Here Orville lived the remainder of his life and here he died in 1891. Here also died his wife, the keen-witted, level headed Sally Briggs, who outlived him by eighteen years.
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