He was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and graduated from the Reformed Medical School in New York City.

David's first wife Laura died in 1842, and several years later he married her sister, Amanda Rowley.

He manufactured bromine near his home, manned a weather station, worked as a physician, and was one of the first daguerreotype photographers of the town of Freeport.

Inventions while in Freeport: "In the great Pittsburgh Fire of 1845, he found a shard of melted glass that gave him the idea of the light spectrum.

He also invented and patented a method of manufacturing Bromine from salt wells in 1845, that was highly useful in the iron industry and was put on display in the World's fair.