Born in Champaign County, Ohio, July 19, 1821. In 1827, his parents moved to Shelby county, same state, where his parents both died, within two days of each other. He returned to Ohio to live with an uncle, and in 1841, went again to Shelby County, to engage in milling. In 1849, came to Mills county, Iowa, and in the following year to Fremont. He held numerous township offices, and in 1855, was elected county judge, and again elected in 1861, to fill the same office. In 1868, he was a member of the state legislature, serving his county in that capacity for two years. He was four years member of the county board, and, as the reader may have already gleaned from another page, was intimately connected with all the material growth of the county. He was married in 1843, to Miss Margaret Smith, who died in October, 1849. He married Miss J. Smith, a sister to his former wife, in 1853.