Born in the State of New York, he started in the insurance industry there and in Connecticut before turning his attention to copper mining in the Arizona Territory.

His father was a merchant; his mother was a cousin of President William Taft[1] He was educated in public schools and at the academy in Whitney Point, New York.

[2] Shortly after joining the firm he was promoted to general superintendent[3] and within three years he was the head of the legal department.

Stoddard met John Maynard Harlan 35 years later in Arizona and then learned that he was the boy he saved.

[3] These interests would grow to include two groups of patented mines and the first copper smelter in Central or Northern Arizona.

Stoddard financed development of the mining operations by securing investments from people in his native New York, including U.S.

Stoddard was reported to have spent almost $1,000,000 on developing mines in the region in the prior two decades, mostly from East Coast investors.

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and several Congressmen from New York recommended Stoddard as a nonpolitical candidate to replace Governor Benjamin Joseph Franklin.

The legislature should either pass a law providing that the fees of this office should go to the territory or increase the salaries of the Governor, Treasurer, and Auditor to proportionate amounts.

At that time, 3,500 mostly "foreign" (Mexican and Italian) miners[17] in the towns of Clifton, Morenci, and Metcalf went on strike in a wage dispute related to the "eight-hour law".

The contingent of fifteen Rangers and fifty deputies[17] requested additional support, and Stoddard subsequently sent six companies of the National Guard (then known as the Arizona Territorial Militia).

[18][9] After the law was changed, Stoddard was alleged to have continued to retain the fees, failed to provide accounting to an oversight committee, and burned records to prevent inspection.

In October 1903, he traveled to Washington, D.C. to defend himself to Secretary of the Interior Ethan Hitchcock, claiming the charges were made by "irresponsible persons".

Thomas C. Platt, the powerful Senator of New York State, where Stoddard's father-in-law, Celora E. Martin, was a member of the state's highest court, attempted to convince President Roosevelt to retain Stoddard, but Roosevelt refused and accepted the resignation effective April 1, 1904.

[22] Shortly after he left, Overland was bought by Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company, part of the Bell System.

[24][25] Socially, Stoddard was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.