David Alonzo Caneday was born June 21, 1830, in Bennington County, Vermont. He moved to Taylor’s Falls, Minnesota, in 1853. He enlisted in Company C of the 7th Minnesota Infantry on December 4, 1863, and mustered out August 16, 1865. Caneday married Laura Maria Humphrey in 1865. After the Civil War he edited the St. Croix Dalles from 1881-1884, and engaged in mining in prospecting. He mined on the Kettle River in Pine County, Minnesota, and in Burnett County, Wisconsin, and was living in Grantsburg (Burnett County) in 1910. Caneday died October 31, 1916, in Hennepin County, Minnesota. His surname is frequently mis-spelled, among others as Canneday and Canaday.
From Fifty Years in the Northwest, by W. H. C. Folsom (1888): 342; available in the UWRF Archives (F 606 .F65 1888):
DAVID CANEDAY was born in Vermont in 1830, and settled in Taylor’s Falls in 1853. Mr. Canday has devoted much of his time to prospecting as a mineralogist. During the years 1861-62 he edited the St. Croix Monitor, and from 1881-84 the St. Croix Dalles. In 1862 he enlisted in Company C., Seventh Minnesota Infantry, and served till the close of the war. His record as a soldier was good. After the battle of Tupelo he volunteered to remain with the wounded, of whom there were about sixty, in the hands of the enemy. Two of these wounded were comrades and friends in Company C., Andrew J. Colby and John S. Swenson. The former died. Mr. Caneday remained at great personal risk, and saw the inside of several prisons before being exchanged. After his return Mr. Caneday engaged in mining and prospecting, except such time as he edited the St. Croix Dalles. He is now mining on Kettle river, in Pine county, Minnesot, and in Burnett county, Wisconsin. He was married in 1865 to Laura, daughter of Judge N. M. Humphrey.
The Civil War and Northwest Wisconsin 