He was home-schooled until the age of 14, when he began studying mathematics at the local school, later moving to the Franklin Select School a few miles away and then to the Franklin Academy, finishing his formal education at age approximately 20.

In 1885, he became the librarian for the Survey Office of the United States Coast Guard,[2][3][4][5] and in 1898 he became a computer in the Division of Tides.

[4] Martin was a prolific contributor of problems and solutions to mathematical puzzle columns in popular magazines beginning at the age of 18 in the Pittsburgh Almanac and the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post.

From 1870 to 1875, he was editor of the "Stairway Department" of Clark's School Visitor, one of the magazines to which he had previously contributed.

[2][4] In 1893 in Chicago, his paper On fifth-power numbers whose sum is a fifth power was read (but not by him) at the International Mathematical Congress held in connection with the World's Columbian Exposition.