Born in Arlington, Vermont in 1822, Thomas Hawley Canfield, Sr. was educated at Burr Seminary in Manchester, Vt., at the Troy, (N.Y.) Episcopal Institute, and at Union College in Schenectady, which he left when his father died in 1840. After working three years on the family farm, Canfield moved to Williston, Vt., where he built up an extensive mercantile business and married Elizabeth Chittenden. Moving to Burlington, Vt. in April, 1847, Canfield joined the wholesale mercantile and forwarding firm of Follet and Bradley, which soon became Bradley and Canfield. His wife died in 1848 and he soon thereafter married Caroline Amelia Hopkins, daughter of John H. Hopkins, first Episcopal Bishop of Vermont. By 1850, Canfield was involved in railroad construction and lake and rail transportation between Montreal, Vermont, and New York. Among these interests were the Ogdensburgh Railroad and the Rutland and Washington Railroad, the latter of which he was president and lessee. During the Civil War he served as assistant manager of all railroad lines entering Washington from the north and east. Returning to Burlington after the war, Canfield was for a while superintendent of the Champlain Transportation Company. His most important project was probably the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, for which his efforts included negotiations for the initial government contract during 1865, several western explorations, and service as a director until the Company's bankruptcy in 1873. Retirement from business life continued that same year with his resignation from the Lake Superior and Puget Sound Company after twenty years of service, including several as president. By 1876, Canfield was devoting most of his time to the three thousand acre wheat farm at Lake Park, Minnesota, where he resided until his death in 1897.

His farming and business interests were assumed by his son, Thomas H. Canfield, Jr. (1874-1964?), who later retired to California. - source University of Vermont Special Collections