Samuel enlisted in 1863 at age 18 and served in the 2nd Arkansas Cavalry Regiment and left the army in August of 1865.
[1] He settled in Springfield, Missouri to operate a ferry before travelling to Ewing College in Illinois to continue his education.
By 1870 he was an instructor at Flowermont Academy in Denton County, Texas and served as the principal their for a year before returning to Arkansas to study law in 1873.
In 1876, he refused the Republican Party's nomination for Arkansas's 4th congressional district to focus on his legal studies.
In 1898 he was appointed postmaster of Oklahoma City by President William McKinley and he served in that position until 1902.