Selden Candee. Probably no one among the early pioneers is better known in Clayton and adjoining counties than the subject of this article. From his early years he has led a very active life; he came west when a young man, crossing the Mississippi River on ice in 1838. He made the journey fromToledo to Rock Island on foot and in 1849 crossed the plains to California, leaving Galena, Ill., on the 1st of March, and arriving at his destination September 15. He walked all the distance from a point two hundred miles west of the Missouri River. Since the spring of 1851, with the exception of a few years, he has been a resident of this county, and has been greatly interested in the development of this locality.

Asa Candee, the father of our subject, was born in New Haven, Conn., and was a soldier in the War of 1812. His father, whose given name was Gideon, was also a native of Connecticut, where the family had resided for several generations, the founders of the family in the United States having emigrated in the seventeenth century from England. They were patriots and were devoted to this their adopted land, and Gideon Candee carried a musket for seven years in the War of the Revolution. The wife of Asa Canndee before her marriage was Mary McAlpin, her birth having occurred in Scotland. Their union was celebrated in Oswego County, N. Y. and there they resided until 1834, when Mrs Candee died, during the cholera plague of that year. Soon afterward Asa Candee removed to Michigan, settling not far from Toledo, Ohio, on wild timber land. He made a permanent home on that tract of land, which is still in the possession of the family, and Selden was the first white man to fell a tree on that farm. The father and mother were members of the Presbyterian Church. Politically he was originally a Democrat, and later a Republican.

Of the thirteen children of Asa and Mary Candee, only six are now living. Alta, Mrs. Wilson, lives near Toledo, Ohio, and has one son; Ara, who has three children, resides in Hardin, Clayton County; George and Hulta were twins, the former being a resident of Toledo, and the latter, Mrs. George Cassaday, lives in Luana; Orinda, Mrs. Siddall, who has five sons, makes her home in Oberlin, Ohio; Selden Candee was born December 8, 1816, in Oswego county, N. Y., and received only a limited education. When twenty years of age he started to make his own livelihood and to try his fortunes in. The then far west. He proceeded to Rock Island, working for his board as he went, as he was entirely without means. In the spring of 1839 he reached Galena, Ill., where he was engaged in lead mining for the succeeding ten years.

As previously stated, our subject started for the Pacific Slope in the spring of 1849, and on his arrival there worked for fifteen months in the mines, obtaining enough money to pay his expenses and returning by way of Panama. In the spring of 1851 he settled on a farm a mile east of this place, where he resided for a year. Later he became interested in building a sawmill on the Yellow River at Volney, which village he laid out and named. In 1855 he went to Winona County, Minn., operating a farm there for two years, and then returned to the Yellow River, where he purchased six hundred acres of wild land, which he settled upon and made his home for many years, greatly improving it and placing good buildings on the place. In 1877 he became the owner of a farm in Monona Township, which he also improved, and some eleven years later retired to his present home. His life has been filled with honest and industrious toil, and he has literally been a pioneer all his days. Possessed of a rugged constitution, and having lived an outdoor life, he has been remarkably healthy, and last year, for the first time in four decades, required the services of a physician. When seventy-eight years of age he painted the roof of his house and blacksmith shop, and is not content even now to remain in idleness.

In 1859 Mr. Candee married Elenor J. Bowles, a native of Maryland, of which state her parents, Thomas C. and Jane ( Rodgers ) Bowles, were likewise natives. The former, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, was an early settler in Holmes County, Ohio, and in 1852 became a resident of this township, where his death occurred. His wife was born April 17, 1798, and died April 18, 1884. Mr. And Mrs. Candee never had any children of their own, but adopted Jennie, daughter of Joshua and Lucretia ( Bowles ) Reese, who were early settlers of McGregor, Iowa, and are both now deceased.

During the war Selden Candee was a member of the Union League, and one of his brothers, Erdley, died in the service during the war with Mexico. Our subject, who has been a Republican since the organization of the party, has frequently been a delegate to conventions. In 1860 he was elected Supervisor of Franklin Township, Allamakee County, serving as such for about six years, and later was County Supervisor for one term. In various other official capacities he has acted, having been Road Supervisor, Township Trustee and Township Treasurer. At one time he was connected with the County Fair Association, and whenever any new undertaking or enterprise has been started his influence has always been in demand.

~source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton Counties; Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1894; pg 461-462
~transcribed by Suzanne Terrell