He came to the United States in 1847, settling briefly in Weinsberg, Ohio, before coming to Green Bay, where he ran a general store on Main Street.
He married Maria Magdalena Goetzman on August 20, 1868; they would have a son and a daughter.
He had served four yearly terms on the Green Bay city council, and one on the Brown County board of supervisors, before being elected in 1871 from the 1st Brown County district (the Towns of Bellevue, Eaton, Green Bay, Humboldt, Preble and Scott and the City of Green Bay), unseating Republican incumbent Joseph S. Curtis with 665 votes to Curtis' 582.
He was assigned to the standing committees on federal relations and legislative expenditures.
This article about a Democratic Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly is a stub.