Born March 22, 1827, in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio. He emigrated from Indiana and settled in a lonely cabin, on the borders of what afterward became Monona and Harrison counties, and lived in that remote spot as a bachelor long before he had any neighbors. By and by settlers surrounded him, and, in the turn of the political wheel, he was chosen to the Fifth General Assembly, 1853. To make a respectable appearance at the capital of the State, he came to Council Bluffs in his frontier garb and bought a new suit of clothes and a satchel. With these he intended to surprise his fellow-members from the more fortunate districts in the eastern part of the new State. The young woman whom he intended as his wife, Miss Margaret Ann Smith, was living at D. B. Clark's, and, going out there that evening to see her, he concluded that he would leave his new clothes at Tootle & Jackson's store, and wear them for the first time at the State Capital. That night the store was destroyed by fire, and with it his new satchel and its contents. Nothing daunted, he went his way, dressed as he came, and when he appeared in his seat in the House, his uncouth appearance and garb were the wonder of his fellow-members.