A newspaperman in Kentucky, he came west over the California Trail with Lansford Hastings in 1845, before the gold rush.
During the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt, he led the Americans around Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento valley.
In 1847, with Thomas O. Larkin, he received a grant of land from Mariano Vallejo along the Carquinez Strait near the mouth of the Sacramento River provided that a new town be erected there named for Vallejo's wife Francisca Benicia.
"Francisca" was objected to by the citizens of Yerba Buena, which had recently been renamed San Francisco by its occupying American alcalde Washington Bartlett: The city became Benicia instead.
During the gold rush of 1849 he operated a ferry service from San Francisco to the East Bay.