[3][2] He graduated from the law department of the University of Utica, New York in 1847, and was admitted to the bar that same year.
[4] Soon after obtaining the bar he started private practice with B. Davis Noxon, and then later becoming a law partner with Joshua A. Spencer in New York.
[6] In April 1884, he was appointed by Governor George Washington Glick to fill the position on the supreme court left by the resignation of justice David Josiah Brewer.
[3] He died, February 22, 1899, after a slight illness, he had been sitting near the breakfast table before suddenly falling from his chair dead.
[8] Several judges gave eulogies, and the Bar Association and Templar societies attended his funeral.