Born in Louisiana, November 11, 1840. He came to the North when a young man, and as a rider on the Overland Pony Express carried mail across the plains for some years. He went to Winterset, Iowa, about 1861 and obtained employment as a printer. He enlisted in Company D, First Iowa Cavalry, on June 13, 1861, and after eighteen months' service, received his discharge on account of disability on February 14, 1863. He returned to Iowa and in the winter of 1864-65 located at Pella, where he established the Pella Blade. In 1866 he was appointed a clerk in the House of Representatives. In 1871 he removed to Des Moines and for six years was city editor on the Iowa State Register. In 1878 he served as Representative from Polk county in the Seventeenth General Assembly and was instrumental in passing the law to establish the board of railroad commissioners. In 1887 he became one of the founders and first editor of the Des Moines Daily News. He afterward disposed of his interests in this paper and was city editor on the Des Moines Daily Capital for a time and did similar work in St. Joseph and Atchison.