His father was a farmer whose family belonged to Berneck's historic bourgeoisie.

[1] He studied history at the universities of Zürich, Bonn and Paris, receiving his doctorate at Zürich in 1868 with a dissertation on Trajan, titled Beiträge zu einer kritischen Geschichte Trajans.

From 1868 to 1907 he taught classes in history at the cantonal school in St. Gallen, and from 1874 onward, was head of the Stadtbibliothek Vadiana, the city library in St.

[2] He was married to Lisette Brunner of Oberhelfenschwil, with whom he had two daughters.

His magnum opus was a history of the Swiss Confederation, Geschichte der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, published in five volumes from 1887 to 1917.