A native of Ireland, born in County Limerick, April 14, 1850. His early life was spent in school and when in his eighteenth year he began teaching, continuing that occupation until the day he left home for America. On March 27, 1871, he took passage in the steamer City of Montreal, bound for New York, and landed April 10. He remained in New York about three months and then came west to Chicago, where he soon after found employment as bookkeeper and cashier in the retail grocery store of William Sullivan, on Elston Avenue with whom he remained until 1876. He then returned home to visit his parents and in the fall of the same year returned to Chicago and took the position of bookkeeper and manager of the large business of P. K. Bowen. In the spring of 1881 he started in business for himself, where he carried on a successful business until December, 1884, when he sold out and the next month located in Cooper Township. While in the mercantile business in Chicago his enterprise and energy prompted him to invest in other speculations in the pursuit of which he visited California and Washington Territory twice and purchased some very valuable property in the city of Tacoma on Puget Sound, now the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He now owns and manages a large stock farm and is also devoting some time and attention to buying and shipping live-stock. He is a shrewd business man who is likely to make a success of any business venture he may make. In politics he is an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party. He represented Webster County in the Twenty-fourth Iowa General Assembly, 1892. He was married September 13, 1882, to Mary C. Broderick, a native of Ohio.