Born in Cairngorm, Scotland, June 16, 1837, and was only two years old when his parents moved to London. There he received his education at Maitland Park, also attending Christ's Hospital college. He afterward engaged in surveying and the study of architecture, and drew the working plans of the Pompeian Court in the present Crystal Palace at Sydenham, near London, England. July 14, 1855, he took passage for America, and went to nearly all the larger cities in the east, looking for employment in his line, working in various places until the breaking out of the war, when he enlisted for one hundred days in the Thirteenth Illinois volunteers, and afterward enlisted in the 105th Illinois infantry. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh. June 7, 1865, he was discharged at Washington, D. C., and returned to Kane county, Ill. In 1866 he went to Iowa county, Iowa, and was there eight years, farming. He then went to Guthrie county where he remained two years, and in 1876 came to Woodbury county and purchased 100 acres of land in section seventeen, Liberty township. He was one of the early settlers here, and has held many of the township and county offices. He is secretary of the Soldiers Relief Commission, and was member of the legislature from Woodbury county in 1880. He was a senior vice-commander of G. A. R. Post, No. 22, at Sioux City, a member of the Farmers' Alliance, and in politics a republican. November 21, 1865, he married Elizabeth J. Jones, of Kane county, Ill., and they have six children.