After graduating he relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota where he worked in the drug business.

Mr. Stevens wrote, "he could scarcely walk up the bluff from the old landing," but the climate in Minnesota made them both "strong, healthy men.

When the fourth legislature met in Jan. 1853, the house failed to secure a speaker.

John D. Ludden, and other members of the house and territorial senate, as well as prominent St. Paul citizens.

At the time, he was the resident physician of the Indian department in Long Prairie.