Representative from Story county, was born in Carroll county, Illinois, October 16, 1860, and moved with his parents to Cedar county, Iowa, in 1866. He was educated in the public schools of Cedar county and Clarence, Iowa, and completed a course in the business college at Aledo, Illinois. He learned telegraphy at Clarence and in 1879 was extra operator and agent for the C. & N. W. railway company and worked his way up to the position of train dispatcher at Eagle Grove and Boone, and later was transferred to Rawlins, Wyoming, as train dispatcher for the Union Pacific railway. In 1888 he went into the mercantile business at Crawford, Nebraska, and later at Sheldon, Iowa, and in 1903 organized the Ames Savings Bank at Ames, Iowa, of which he was cashier until 1912, when he sold his interest in that bank and established the Commercial Bank of Ames, of which he is now president. He was married to Clara West of Ames, Iowa, in 1887, and his family consists of wife, two sons and one daughter. He was elected city treasurer of Ames in 1904 and held that position for eight years. Was elected representative in 1912. A republican in politics.