Born on the 2d of March, 1842, in Wayne County, Ohio. His parents removed to Wisconsin while he was a child and there he entered Milton College but before finishing the course enlisted in the Union army, serving until the close of the war. Returning to Janesville he studied law and was admitted to the bar but afterwards took the full course in the Law Department of the State University of Michigan. In 1868 he located at Boone, Iowa. In 1881 he was elected to the House of the Nineteenth General Assembly, serving one term. In 1882 he was elected to Congress on the Republican ticket and twice reelected, serving six years. He died January 23, 1902.