He was acting chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1887 until 1891, and again from 1907 to 1908.
He attended Phillips Exeter Academy with classmate Robert Todd Lincoln.
He worked at high schools in Worcester, Massachusetts, (1865/6) and Nashville, Tennessee, (1866/67).
In 1867, he was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Nashville, but that year he accepted a position as professor of belles lettres at Washington University.
In 1867, he married Ellen Frances Jewell of Exeter, New Hampshire.