J.C. commenced the study of medicine under Dr. Bascom of Mercer, Pennsylvania, and later earned a degree from the Medical University at Louisville, Kentucky.

He then located at Auburn, Placer County, California and engaged in a large general practice and hospital work, where he became widely known and gained a reputation for his professional skill.

[2] (Lansing Stout, another future Oregonian, represented Placer County in California's lower house at the time.

[1] The hospital was so successful that the state government, during Governor Whiteaker's term in 1862, contracted with him to assume the care of the insane of Oregon.

He gained national renown in the treatment of insanity, and the curative rate of his institution was considered equal to that of any similar establishment in the United States.

His first wife, Miss Emma Curry, a niece of Congressman Kelly of Pennsylvania, died in Portland in 1862, only a few weeks after their marriage.