| Biographical Note |
- Winfield's mother died when he was only thirteen and sometime after that the family moved to New Ulm, MN. We do not know if Winfield graduated from high school in Binghamton before the family removed to New Ulm or afterward, or even if he graduated from high school at all. It is not known if his older brother, Ward, also went to New Ulm. Probably he did not. Winfield had left New Ulm and was working in St. Paul, MN, in 1917when the United States entered the war in Europe, eventually to be known as 'The Great War' and then 'World War I'. Soon thereafter he joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to Battery 'C' of the 151st Field Artillery inthe famous Rainbow Division. He said that he had fought in every major battle of the war except one during which he was hospitalized for treatment of an injury resulting from a mustard-gas bomb explosion. After the war, sometime in the early Twenties, Winfield took a job for a chain-store firm named The Burg Company. He traveled about South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin opening the firm's new stores and operating them until a permanent manager could be found. In 1933 he moved from Portage, Wisconsin to Sauk Centre, Minnesota to open another new 'Burg Store’. During the Great Depression the Burg Company became bankrupt but Winfield continued as manager of the store, now renamed a 'Ben Franklin Store, under a new owner. He remained in Sauk Center as a prominent citizen who was actively involved with civic affairs. At some point during his residency there he was able to purchase the store which he sold upon his retirement and removed to Rapid City, SD, where he and his wife lived in and operated a small apartment building they had built near Canyon Lake. Managing the apartments eventually became too difficult for Winfield’s age so he and Florence sold out and removed to Longmont, Colorado to be near their son David and family. Winfield died there in his sleep one night of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery. Florence, his steadfast partner and a wise woman of great wit and charm, stayed in Longmont a while and then moved to Green Valley, Arizona when her son David and Julie and family moved there. She died in Tucson, Arizona of a fall downstairs and was also buried at Fort Logan.
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1892 - 1970 (77 years)