In 1810, his family removed to Canandaigua, NY where he learned to be a printer.
In 1820, he began publishing with Henry R. Stockton the Republican Chronicle in Ithaca, NY.
In 1823, he married Melissa Lord, and they had five children.
From 1828 to 1853, he published with Anson Spencer the Ithaca Chronicle.
He was one of the first three Inspectors of State Prisons elected on the Whig ticket in 1847 under the New York State Constitution of 1846, and drew the three-year term, being in office from 1848 to 1850.