Was born at Davenport, Scott county, Iowa, on December 31, 1873. At the age of six months he, with his parents, drove across the country in an old-fashioned prairie schooner to the state of Nebraska, locating near St. Paul in that state. The family lived there for four years and on March 1, 1877, moved to Poweshiek county, Iowa, near the town of Belle Plaine. All his early life was spent on this farm and in this locality he secured a common school education. His college work was taken at Highland Park, Des Moines, where the course of electrical and mechanical engineering was studied. At the close of his college work he returned to the farm and for the past twenty years his energy has been spent along lines of scientific agriculture, and his work on corn and small grains has been quite successful. In 1901 he was married to Miss Nettie Hakeman, and to this union two daughters have been born, Verda and May. For the past four years he has been president of the Iowa Corn and Small Grain Growers Association, and for twelve years previous to that held various other offices in the same organization. Is a member of the I.O.O.F., K.P., and Masons.