At the age of around 18, he worked for three months at a dry goods store in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.

[1] Lahm intended to return to Leitersburg, but moved to Canton, Ohio, to open a practice.

[1][3] Lahm was elected as lieutenant colonel and later appointed as a brigadier general in the state's antebellum militia,[2][3] and commanded the 2nd Brigade, 6th Division of Ohio during the Mexican War.

They had four sons and one daughter: Marshall, Edward, Frank Samuel, Charles Henry and Helen Rebecca.

[2][citation needed] He was the father of Frank Samuel Lahm, a noted expatriate and pioneer balloonist, and the grandfather of Brigadier General Frank Purdy Lahm, aerial pioneer, student of the Wright brothers, and the first military officer to fly an airplane.

The two eldest sons served in the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War and died in service within three weeks of each other, by sickness.

[1][5] This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress