Born in Clyde, Wayne County, New York, March 27, 1824. He supplemented his early education by a course in the high school of Clyde and in 1841, at the age of seventeen, entered Yale College as a freshman. In 1848 he became a resident of Albany, New York, where he acquired a reputation for utter fearlessness in the discharge of whatever duty was entrusted to him. As his subsequent military career fully proved, he was born to be a soldier. Upon graduating from Yale, James Redfield returned to his home in Clyde, where he began the study of law. The following year Mr. Redfield was elected county superintendent of common schools of Wayne County, New York, taking the oath of office on December 3, 1846. He acted in this capacity for two years and in 1848, at the invitation of Hon. Christopher Morgan, secretary of the state of New York, he went to Albany. Abandoning the law, Mr. Redfield accepted a position in the office of Hon. Morgan. After retiring from the office of the secretary of state he engaged in mercantile pursuits in Albany, but in May, 1855, came to Davenport, Iowa, where he made the acquaintance of Thomas Moore, his subsequent father-in-law, and in company with him spent some time prospecting for a location. Mr. Redfield and Mr. Moore, purchased a large tract of land in the beautiful valley of the middle branch of the Raccoon river in Dallas County, Iowa, near the original Dodge survey for the line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway, where they founded a village which they called Wiscotta. On May 7, 1856, James Redfield was united in marriage at Redfield, Iowa, to Miss Achsah Moore. In October, 1861, after a very heated canvass, James Redfield was elected to the state senate of Iowa on the republican ticket. In this distinguished body Senator Redfield at once took high rank and acquired great influence, being placed on the committee of ways and means, schools and public lands. This was the legislature that made provisions for organizing Iowa's quota of the grand Union army and history has long since recorded how wisely and well that work was done.
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