He attended Alfred University for a time before reading law with the firm of Dana, Beers & Howard in Ithaca.

He mined the Idaho Territory's Boise Basin in 1863 before returning East.

He married Weltha Maynard in 1865 before returning to the Idaho Territory, moving to a ranch in Ada County, where he began his longterm profession of farming and stock raising.

He lost a race for territorial council in 1888 before being elected to represent Ada County as a delegate to the Idaho Constitutional Convention.

He also spent fourteen years on the board of the Idaho Insane Asylum at Blackfoot.