He was born in Clarke County, Virginia and served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

He was educated in public schools and at the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the Confederate army, serving with the Parker battery until the final surrender of Appomattox.

He fought in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, including Chickamauga, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Gettysburg and Petersburg.

At the end of the war he returned to Virginia but in 1866 moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was employed as a clerk in a mercantile establishment.

[2] He read law while living on his earnings as a clerk and in 1880 was admitted to the Utah bar, but did not begin practice until 1883, when he moved to Fort Collins, Colorado and opened an office.

meeting some years ago was considered one of the finest pieces of patriotic sentiment ever delivered in the state.