Lamoille

KENFIELD, Frank

Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of 
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, p 232 
(portrait p 232)

Frank KENFIELD, of Morrisville [Lamoille County, Vermont], was born 13 March 
1838 in Sterling, now part of Morristown [Lamoille County, Vermont], son of 
Asaph and Eliza (SHEPHARD) KENFIELD. George KENFIELD, the grandfather of 
Frank, was a soldier in the Revolution. Asaph was the first [white] male 
child born in Morristown, and followed farming as his life occupation. He 
[Asaph KENFIELD] was born 26 June 1794, and died 11 October 1866. Frank was 
educated in the common schools, and at the People's Academy, Morrisville. 
After he was of age, he went to Massachusetts for a year, where he taught 
school and then made a tour of observation through the West and South. In 
the spring of 1860 he returned from his wanderings, built a saw mill at 
Morristown Corners, and commenced the lumber business, but this was 
interrupted by the call to arms that resounded in the land in 1861.

Frank KENFIELD enlisted 24 September 1862 as a private in Company E, 
Thirteenth Regiment Vermont Volunteers, was immediately elected second 
lieutenant, and soon after promoted to first lieutenant. He was with his 
regiment every day of its service, and when General PICKETT made his furious 
charge at Gettysburg he had the good fortune to capture a Confederate 
captain, whose sword is still in his possession. In the latter part of the 
this engagement he received a severe wound. On his recovering he again 
entered the service, recruited Company C, Seventeenth Regiment, was 
commissioned its captain, and mustered in 08 February 1864. The third 
attempt at battalion drill of this regiment was on the bloody field of the 
Wilderness, and there Captain KENFIELD was again severely wounded, sent to 
the hospital at Fredericksburg, and allowed a thirty-day furlough. At the 
battle of Petersburg Mine, 30 July 1864, his company was almost annihilated, 
and he was captured and sent to Columbia [Richland County], South Carolina. 
After seven months of imprisonment he was transferred to Wilmington [New 
Hanover County], North Carolina, and paroled. He was mustered out of the U. 
S. service 15 May 1865.

Since his return from the army Captain KENFIELD has been actively engaged in 
mercantile pursuits, but more recently he has given attention to farming and 
stock and produce buying. He has been entrusted with nearly every town 
office, and was sent to the Legislature in 1884, where he served on the 
general and military committees. He was influential in securing the 
appropriation for the soldiers' home, and was appointed one of its trustees. 
He holds the office of assistant quartermaster general of the department of 
Vermont, Grand Army of the Republic. He is a member of the Loyal Legion, and 
has served as commander of J. M. Warren Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of 
Morrisville. For more than thirty years he has been numbered among the 
brotherhood of Free Masons. On 05 September 1866 he [Frank KENFIELD] married 
Lamott C., daughter of Lomis and Catherine WHEELOCK, of Montpelier; she 
[Lamott C. KENFIELD] died in 1872, leaving one daughter, Kate (Mrs. Carl 
SMITH). On 09 February 1874 Frank KENFIELD formed a second alliance with 
Mrs. Margaret LYMAN, daughter of David and Ann CRULLER.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly