As a youth, he worked on the family farm and was first educated in the village academy, later at the Quaker school in Skaneateles (town), New York.

Two years later he travelled to California during the Gold Rush, and spent two winters working mines on the Yuba River.

With that he was able to spend three months in Civil War combat areas, and at one time riding his horse to the front line with the Second Connecticut Regiment.

In 1868 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in California's First District, losing to incumbent Samuel Beach Axtell by more than 3500 votes.

[1] In 1882 Governor George Clement Perkins appointed Pixley to the board of commissioners of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

The investors, Darwin C. Allen and William B. Bradbury, knew their project would succeed only if the town was connected to the mainline of the Southern Pacific.

They contacted Frank Pixley, a man whom they knew was a friend of Leland Stanford, president of the Southern Pacific.

Special railroad fares were offered to people in other areas of California and as far away as Boston in order to bring potential customers to see the new lands and the investment possibilities near Pixley.

Emma bought a quarter section of an adjoining piece of land where she farmed until they moved back to San Francisco.