he began to work when eight years old, first in a crockery factory, then in a sugar refinery.
At age 16, he became a mess boy aboard the steamer Atlantic of the Collins Line.
He fought in the American Civil War as a captain of volunteers from May to November 1861, when he resigned his commission to take care of the family after his father's death.
During his second senatorial term, he left the Ring and joined the Young Democracy (an Anti-Tweed faction of Tammany Hall.
Later he joined Irving Hall and the County Democracy, both Anti-Tammany organizations affiliated with the Democratic Party.