Representative Robert Franklin Armfield

Robert Franklin Armfield (July 9, 1829 – November 9, 1898) was a North Carolina lawyer, legislator, lieutenant governor, and a Democratic Representative in the United States Congress from 1879 to 1883. Over the course of a long public career, he held offices at both the state and federal levels and participated in the legislative process during a significant period in American history, representing the interests of his North Carolina constituents.

Armfield was born near Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, on July 9, 1829. He attended the common schools of the area and later enrolled at Trinity College, then a small Methodist institution in North Carolina that would eventually become Duke University. After completing his studies there, he pursued the law, reading in the office of prominent attorney and politician John A. Gilmer. He was admitted to the bar in 1845 and established a law practice in Yadkinville, Yadkin County, where he built his early professional reputation.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Armfield entered military service in the Confederate States Army. He enlisted in the Thirty-eighth Regiment of North Carolina state troops, in which he first served as a lieutenant and later rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. During the conflict he was wounded, and while on furlough in 1862 he accepted a civil appointment as state solicitor for the sixth judicial district of North Carolina. He continued in that prosecutorial office through the latter part of the war and into the early Reconstruction period until 1865, when he was removed by Governor William Woods Holden. Following the war, Armfield moved to Statesville, in Iredell County, where he resumed the practice of law.

Armfield’s political career advanced during the 1870s as North Carolina underwent the turbulent adjustments of Reconstruction and its aftermath. He was elected to the North Carolina Senate, serving in the sessions of 1874 and 1875. During the 1874 session he was chosen president of the Senate, a position that placed him in a leading role in the upper chamber of the General Assembly. In 1875 he was selected as Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, serving from 1875 to 1876. In that capacity he presided over the Senate and was a key Democratic officeholder during the period in which the party was reasserting control over state government.

In 1878, Armfield was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives. He served two consecutive terms in the 46th and 47th Congresses, from March 4, 1879, to March 3, 1883. As a member of the House of Representatives, he participated in the democratic process at the national level and contributed to the legislative work of Congress during a significant era in American political and economic development. Throughout his tenure he represented the interests of his North Carolina constituents, aligning with the Democratic Party on issues that reflected the priorities of his state and region. He chose not to stand for re-election in 1882 and left Congress at the close of his second term.

After his congressional service ended in 1883, Armfield returned to Statesville and resumed his law practice. His legal and political experience led to further judicial responsibilities, and in 1889 he was appointed, and subsequently elected, as a superior court judge in North Carolina. He held this judicial post for the remainder of his life, presiding over cases in the state’s trial courts and contributing to the administration of justice in the post-Reconstruction era.

Robert Franklin Armfield died in Statesville, North Carolina, on November 9, 1898, while still serving as a superior court judge. He was interred in Oakwood Cemetery in Statesville. His career, spanning service as a Confederate officer, state solicitor, state senator, lieutenant governor, member of the United States House of Representatives, and superior court judge, reflected the trajectory of many Southern political leaders who helped shape North Carolina’s legal and political institutions in the latter half of the nineteenth century.