He was a weak child, and was considered unlikely to follow into his father's occupation; on the advice of a local pastor, he was educated in Melk, where he stayed for four years.
He returned home, and a pastor from Ternberg, aware of his talents, taught him geometry and cartography.
The Duke, interested in local culture, urged him to publish his poems, and they were published in 1849 as Naturbilder aus dem Leben der Gebirgsbewohner in den Grenzalpen zwischen Steyermark und dem Traunkreise ("Nature pictures from the life of mountain-dwellers on the edge of the Alps between Styria and the district of Traun").
Nachgelassene Gedichte ("Posthumous Poems") were published, with a biography of the poet, in 1850 by Alexander Julius Schindler [de].
He knew, like no other, how to give the right expression to the enjoyment of the son of the Alps in the nature and beauty of his homeland in the mountains.