HON. THOMAS D. PENFIELD
Hon. Thomas De Milt Penfield, son of Fowler and Jane (De Milt) Penfield, was born in the town of Camden, Oneida county, N.Y., November 22, 1813, and there are still visible on a hillside about two
miles west of the village the ruins of a small log cabin which formed his birthplace. His grandfather, Jesse Penfield, of English descent, entered the Revolutionary army at the age of seventeen and
distinguished himself by serving over seven years, participating in the battle of White Plains and many others; after the war he removed from Connecticut to Camden, N.Y., where he lived to a good old
age. Fowler Penfield, second son of Jesse, took part in the War of 1812, serving as waiter to Colonel Johnson at Sackett's Harbor. In 1807 he marrid Jane De Milt, a native of Cow's Neck, L. I, who
came to Camden with her parents very early in this century. She was of French and Holland descent, of the families bearing the names of De Milt and Wormsley, who fled from the persecutions
instituted against the Christians and landed on Manhattan Island in the days of New Amsterdam. Benjamin De Milt, a member of her family and a man of unbounded liberality, donated an extensive
library and a large sum of money to the Mechanics' Library of New York city, while his maiden sisters bequeathed much of their estate to benevolent institutions and a dispensary in New York bears
their name. Fowler and Jane Penfield first settled in Oneida county on a farm two miles west of Camden village, the present Carleton farm on the Mexico road, where Thomas was reared and educated.
Fowler Penfield subsequently moved to Westchester county.
Thomas De Milt Penfield spent his youth upon the parental acres, where he acquired those sterling traits of character, those well-rounded habits of thrift and self- reliance, which have marked his long and eventful career. Before he reached his majority he came to Camden village to learn the trade of boot and shoemaker, which he followed several years. In 1837 he took up his residence in Main street on the site he has ever tince occupied and in 1850 he built his present dwelling. In 1854 he purchased of Gen. Lyman Curtis, ex sheriff of Oneida county, his interest in the flouring and grist mills in Camden and became a partner of F. H. Conant, who, two years later, sold out to Thomas Stone, a brother-in-law of Mr. Penfield. This firm, styled Penfield & Stone, continued business until the death of Mr. Stone in , 1861. A few years afterward Hon. Benjamin D. Stone, a son of Thomas, became a partner and ever since then the firm has carried on large and successful milling operations under the name of Penfield & Stone. About 1848 he was made one of the superintendents for the construction of the Rome and Oswego plank road, and for two years after its completion had charge of that portion between Rome and the " Checkered House" in Williamstown.
In politics Mr. Penfield has always been an ardent and consistent Democrat, and for many years was an active and influential leader in the councils of his party. He was elected school commissioner of Camden in 1842, served as justice of the peace for eight years and as justice for the Oneida General Sessions two years; and between 1851 and 1886 represented his town eleven terms on the Board of Supervisors, serving one year as chairman. Although a staunch Democrat he was elected supervisor in a stronghold of Republicanism, and as a member of the board distinguished himself by invariable fairness and unswerving fidelity to his constituents. His conscientious labors won for him universal approval and a wide circle of acquaintances and friends in both parties. In 1879, when not serving as supervisor, he was one of a committee of four appointed by the board to visit every town in the county and equalize the assessed valuation of real estate. His colleagues in this important labor were Harvey Head, Col. Nehemiah Pierce, and Mr. Evans, one from each of the four assembly districts. In 1856, 1857, 1862, and 1879 he was elected to the Assembly, where he served one year as chairman of the committee on villages and as member of such important committees as those on canals, on commerce and navigation, etc.
He was a War Democrat, noted for his independence and the courage of his convictions, and on one occasion was the only Democratic member of the Legislature who voted in favor of a resolution for amending the United States Constitution prohibiting slavery in the States, which resolution was enacted into a law in April, 1865, when eleven of his party colleagues voted with it. His patriotism, his sense of justice, his conviction of duty, and his great admiration for Lincoln made him steadfast in upholding the Union and the war policy of the government. He served four years in the Assembly, and at one time was offered the chairmanship of the committee on canals, but declined in favor of John Snow, of Madison county. During the civil war of 1861-65, judge Doolittle, Samuel Campbell and Mr. Penfield were appointed a committee to raise troops for the Union army, and through their personal efforts and at their own expense raised two regiments in Oneida county, one of which was commanded by Colonel Jarred. Mr. Penfield was for many years prominently identified with Oneida County Agricultural Society and served one term as its president. He was town commissioner of highways four years, president of the village nine terms, and chairman of the Board of Water Commissioners for three years. In 1882 he was elected sheriff of Oneida county and served a term of three years, and while acting in that capacity executed in August, 1883, at the old Mohawk jail in Utica, the notorious William Henry Ostrander, whose trial for the murder of his brother created considerable excitement throughout the country. During the erection of the new town hall in Camden in 1894-95 he was chairman of the building committee. In 1872 he was nominated for Congress by the Democratic convention, with the assurance of election, but refused to go upon the ticket.
Mr. Penfield, from a poor, industrious boy, has lived a career of marked usefulness and activity and become a substantial citizen of large means and varied interests. He is emphatically a self-made man, endowed with rare ability, perseverance, and energy, and now at the age of over eighty-two is well preserved in body and mind. He was long a prominent factor in the local and county Democracy, which honored him with several important offices, but probably his last public acts are embodied in the service he rendered as chairman of the building committee of the new Camden town hall, in which he takes great pride. He has been a member and trustee of the Camden M. E. church many years and was for a time chairman of the board of trustees, especially during the erection of the M. E. parsonage in 1890. Public spirited, enterprising, and benevolent, always good natured, kind hearted, and liberal, he has ever manifested a keen interest in religious, educational, agricultural, and business matters and in the prosperity of his town and village, which have always been his home. He was a warm personal friend of Gov. Horatio Seymour and also of Gov. Lucius Robinson, who spoke of him as a "man who always voted on the right side."
September 6, 1837, Mr. Penfield married, first, Joanna P., daughter of the Rev. Eliakim Stoddard, a local Methodist preacher and father of the M. E. church in Camden; he was born in Connecticut in 1779 and died here in 1860, after a long and useful ministerial life. She was born in Camden on June 6, 1811, and died in 1854. Their children were Samuel D. 1st, born September 3, 1839, died aged two years; and Samuel D. 2d, born November 28, 1844, died October 15, 1877, leaving one daughter, Joanna Stoddard Penfield. In 1855 Mr. Penfield married, second, Miss Lucintha Curtiss Stoddard, a cousin of his first wife and a daughter of judge Israel Stoddard, of Camden. They have one son, Israel Stoddard Penfield, born June 17, 1857.
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