Born in Bridport, Addison County, Vt., in October, 1820, and when little past his majority removed to Chillicothe, Ohio. In 1844, he moved to Columbus and went into business there that of handling musical instruments. In 1856, he made some investments in Franklin County, but did not move his family out until 1857. Upon his arrival he laid out the northeast quarter of section 30-forty acres into Gillett’s addition to Hampton, and built the house which was a part of the Phoenix Hotel, on the corner of Fourth and Main streets. In 1859, he was elected to the legislature, and served with marked ability. He was a radical republican, and was the first republican postmaster at Hampton, having been appointed by President Lincoln in the spring of 1861. Never a very strong or robust man, the vigorous climate proved too much for him and he was stricken with consumption. With characteristic pluck and nerve, however, he kept up his courage and hope to the last, and insisted on taking a trip to Chicago on business against the advice of his family and friends, and while there was taken worse, and died in September, 1862. He was a public-spirited man, and a citizen whose loss was severely felt in Hampton, and if he had lived, his ability and the esteem in which he was held would have doubtless placed him among the first men in Iowa. He left no children, and his wife was now the wife of E. S. Stiles.