Born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, February 20, 1821. His education was acquired at Friends Academy, Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and continued by a classical course in a college at Athens. After graduation he returned to the farm and gave special attention to horticulture. In 1855 he removed to Mahaska County, Iowa, where he planted what was then the largest orchard in the State. He became a prominent member of the State Horticultural Society, making valuable practical contributions to its literature, founded upon his experimental work. In 1869 he was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate, serving in the Thirteenth General Assembly. He was for several years a trustee of the Iowa Agricultural College. He discovered a remedy for the ravages of the "curculio" for which he was awarded a prize by the State Horticultural Society. He died in December, 1883.