John Canon was raised in Washington and Becket, Massachusetts and moved to Tyringham with his parents about 1826. He married Dorcas Tucker in Tyringham 08 May 1832. He owned a large farm near Goose Pond off what is now Tyringham's George Cannon Road, where he and Dorcas raised twelve children. He invested in paper mills on Hop Brook and Goose Pond, albeit unsuccessfully. When the Tyringham Shakers consolidated their communities in the 1860s, John Canon bought the property of the Second Family for $12,000. Following the separation of Tyringham and Monterey, he served one term as Tyringham's representative to Massachusetts' House of Representatives (1854).

John Canon died in an accident, which gave Tyringham's Breakneck Road its name. He and Dorcas were returning to their hilltop farm on a Friday afternoon, after having visited their children on Fernside Road. As they started down the steep hill that leads toward Main Road, the horse began to kick and run. John Canon was thrown from the wagon; Dorcas Canon managed to hang on to the wagon until the front wheel separated from the wagon box, at which time she too fell out. They were taken to their son's house and the doctors were summoned. Dorcas Canon was badly bruised but survived, though the accident was said to have hastened her death. John Canon's head was described as "completely scalped."

THE DAILY SPY (WORCESTER, MASS.) WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 1880, P. 4:
At Tyringham, on Friday night, John Cannon and his wife were thrown from their wagon by the horse taking fright. Mr. Cannon's scalp was torn up all around, and his wife was picked up insensible. The latest reports give very little hope of recovery for either of them, as they are between 70 and 80, and Mrs. Cannon has long been in feeble health.