He was born in Washington County, New York, March 15, 1840. He came with his parents and four brothers and three sisters to Jasper county, Iowa, in 1857, and settled on a farm about two miles south of Prairie City. He was educated in the common schools of New York and Iowa, and at the Central University at Pella. He left college in 1861, and enlisted as a private in Company E., Eighth Iowa Infantry. In September 1861, he was made First Lieutenant of big company, and in 1863, was promoted to the rank of Captain. He participated in every battle in which his regiment was engaged, and was captured at Shiloh, spending six and a-half months in rebel prisons. When the civil war ended, he had attained the rank of Colonel. Returning to the college, he graduated in 1867, and the following year was graduated from the Iowa Law College, now the law department of the Iowa State University. Settling at once at Newton, in Jasper County, he began a practice which he conducted for twenty years, part of the time alone, and part of the time in partnership, first with Judge Lindley, then with his brother, Robert Ryan, and later with W. O. McElroy. He was elected to the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly, in which he served with credit to himself and to his constituency. He was then elected to the district bench, which position he filled with credit for twelve years. At the expiration of his third term, he removed to Des Moines, where, with Judge William Phillips and his two sons, J. B. Ryan and W. L. Ryan, he formed the firm of Phillips, Ryan & Ryan. In 1867, he married, in Washington County, New York Miss H. M. Hurd, of an old Vermont and Eastern New York family. He was a Mason and Knight Templar, a member of the Vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Des Moines, a member of the G. A. R., and of the Loyal Legion, in all of which he was earnest and active, and was president of the Des Moines Bar Association, and a member of the Iowa State Bar Association.