US Congressman. He was born in Winsted, Connecticut, to Dr. Luman Wakefield and his wife Betsey Rockwell Wakefield, and attended local public schools in Westfield, Massachusetts, and Jonesville, New York, before attending the prestigious Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where he graduated from in 1846. He studied law in Painesville, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar shortly thereafter. He commenced to practicing law in Delphi, Indiana, in 1852. He then moved to Shakopee, Minnesota, in 1854. A promising attorney, he was named as the First Judge of the Probate Court of Faribault County, Minnesota. He then entered politics and was elected to serve as a Member of the Minnesota State House of Representatives representing the 14th and 20th Districts from 1857 to 1858, 1863, and again in 1866, and serving as Speaker of the Minnesota State House of Representatives in 1866. In 1864, he married Nannette Reinhart. He then was elected to serve as a Member of the Minnesota State Senate representing the 20th District from 1867 to 1869. He also served as Delegate to the Republican National Convention from Minnesota in 1868, Appointed Receiver of the United States Land Office of Winnebago City Township, Minnesota, from 1869 until he resigned from that post in 1875, and as the 8th Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota from 1876 to 1880. He then ran for a seat in the United States Congress and won. A Republican, he then served Minnesota's 2nd District (representing the Forty-Eighth and Forty-Ninth Congresses) in the United States House of Representatives from 1883 to 1887. After his term in the United States Congress ended he retired from public life. In 1886, he was awarded an honorary degree from his alma mater Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He passed away in Blue Earth, Minnesota, at the age of 85. His wife Nannette predeceased him on January 13, 1899, and the two are laid to rest in Painesville, Ohio. He was the third cousin of Albert Gallatin Wakefield, who served as the Mayor of Bangor, Maine, from 1866 to 1867.