Frank Lane Wolford was born in Adair County, Kentucky, on September 2, 1817. In the antebellum era, Wolford was a prominent attorney in South Central Kentucky and also served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1847 to 1849. In 1861, soon after the Civil War began, Wolford enlisted in the Union army. Until 1864, Wolford served as colonel of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry (USA), which spent much of the war pursuing Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan. In March 1864, the federal army began recruiting black soldiers in Kentucky. In response, Wolford harshly criticized both the policy and President Lincoln. Military officials in Kentucky arrested him and he was dishonorably discharged from the Union army. Following the war, Wolford was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1865 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1883 and 1885. He also served as Kentucky's adjutant general from 1867 to 1868. He died on August 2, 1895.

Hambleton Tapp, "Incidents in the Life of Frank Wolford, Colonel of the First Kentucky Union Cavalry," Filson Club History Quarterly 10 (April 1936): 82-100.