Mayor and justice of the peace, Boonesboro; was born in Philadelphia, April 25, 1821. His paternal grandparents came from Ireland to that city in an early day; when about two years of age he accompanied his father to Chester county, Pennsylvania, and in 1831 moved to Pittsburgh, same State. In 1832 he came to Harrison county, Ohio, where he spent his youth and early manhood, and when fourteen years old he left his home, working as a farm boy for two years, then worked in a mill for the same length of time, and then engaged in the carpenter and builder's trade, in the meantime attending school winters. When twenty-one years of age he made choice of the mason trade and followed that occupation until 1878. On May 24, 1854, he came to this county and spent the winter in Worth township, and the following spring he built a house in Boonesboro. In 1855 he was elected school-fund commissioner of the county, was justice of the peace, and was elected mayor in 1878. In the fall of 1861 he was elected to the State legislature and the honor was well conferred on him. He was married in May,1851, to Miss Sarah Ferguson, a native of Ohio. He has been school director and president of the board, and has been closely identified with all school interests and did as much, if not more, toward the advancement of educational matters than any other man in the county.