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WILLIAM CANAM, superintendent of the
finishing department of the steel mill of the Bethlehem Iron
Company, has been with them since the starting of the works in
Bethlehem in 1862-63. He assisted in making the first steel rail
in South Bethlehem, and since 1862 has been connected with this
giant industry. A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Canam was born in
Huntingdon County, October 7, 1827, being a son of Richard
Canam, who was born in Connecticut and was a merchant by
occupation. The family is of Scotch-Irish descent. Richard
Canam came to Pennsylvania when a young man, starting in
business in what is now Racetown, and afterward going to
Alexandria, where he engaged in merchandising until his death,
at the age of forty-five years. His wife, who was of Irish
descent, was in her girlhood Susan Thompson, a native of
Huntingdon County and a daughter of John Thompson, also a native
of the same place. The mother died about the year 1856, in her
seventy-fifth year. Of her seven children, only two are living,
our subject and his sister, Mrs. Rebecca Moss Ward, of Marietta,
Ohio. A remarkable fact connected with the Canam family is that
eight nephews of William Canam and two brothers-in-law took part
in the late war. William Canam was reared until his fifteenth year in
the county of his birth, where he attended the common schools
and learned the carriage maker's trade in Hollidaysburg. As
early as 1840 he worked in a rolling-mill at Alexandria, and
then went to northwestern Pennsylvania. Later he was employed at
Brady's Bend as a millwright, building rolling-mills. At
Johnstown he worked as assistant at rolls in the mills at that
place. In 1862, coming to Bethlehem at the solicitation of John
Fritz, he took charge of the finishing department upon
the opening of the mills (having previously assisted to put the
machinery in the rolling department of both mills) until the new
rolling-mill started, when he was given a similar position, and
in 1873, still having charge of the finishing department,
assisted in manufacturing and finishing the first steel rails,
they being cast on October 4, and rolled and finished October
18. These were made for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Some time
after this Mr. Canam became assistant to John Fritz
in the steel mill. He is a stockholder in the Lehigh Valley
Railroad, and formerly owned stock in the Northern Pacific
Railroad, which, however, he disposed of.
Since 1864 the residence of our subject has been at No. 147
South New Street. In 1850 he married Miss Rebecca Homan,
who was born in Venango County, and died in Bethlehem in 1879.
Of their nine children, five grew to maturity. Clara is now Mrs.
Frank Bynon, of Denver, Colo.; Mary, who died in
Bethlehem in 1891, was the wife of H. A. Groman; Annie is
Mrs. Oliver Wilson, of Elmira, N. Y.; Edith became the
wife of J. Paul McNeal, of Philadelphia; and Grace is
attending Stroudsburg Normal School. In July, 1888, Mr. Canam
married Mrs. Rebecca B. Talley, who was born in Wilmington,
Del., and is a daughter of Richard C. McBride, a native of New
Jersey. The latter was a contractor and builder at Wilmington
and later in New Castle, Del., where he died in 1869. Mrs.
Canam's ancestors were of Scotch-Irish descent, and her mother
bore the maiden name of Sarah A. Gibbon. Ephraim Gibbon, the
father of the latter, was a farmer near Greenwich, N.J. Mrs.
Canam, who is the eldest of eight children, was reared in
New Castle, and married in Philadelphia Charles L. Talley, who
was a hardware merchant in Philadelphia, where his death
occurred. They were the parents of four children, two of whom
are living.
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. P. 800
Leonard Kent, a graduate in pharmacy, is in the United
States Navy; and Anna is at school in Stroudsburg. Mr. and Mrs.
Canam have three children, Isabel, Florence, and Helen.
The wife is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Canam was
formerly a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is
a Master Mason. In politics he is a true-blue Republican, and is
personally well liked by his large circle of friends and
acquaintances.
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