Born near the present site of Burlington, Iowa, October 26, 1835; attended the public schools and the academy at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1853 and practiced; moved to Wayne County, Iowa, in 1856; Library of Congress member, Iowa house of representatives 1856; moved to Kansas in 1858; during the Civil War served in the Union Army 1861-1865, as captain, then as a colonel; brevetted brigadier general; located in Arkansas after the war; member and president of the constitutional convention of Arkansas,1866; justice of the supreme court of Arkansas 1867-1871; appointed Governor of Idaho Territory by President Ulysses Grant in 1871; resigned and returned to Arkansas; moved to Colorado in 1875 and resumed the practice of law; upon the organization of the State government was elected judge of the fourth judicial district 1876-1880; member, State house of representatives 1882; resigned, having been elected as a Republican to the United States Senate, and served from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1889; chairman, Committee on Mining (Forty-eighth Congress), Committee on Enrolled Bills (Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses); engaged in mining in Colorado, with residence in Pueblo, Colorado.