Born in Windsor, Vermont, Horton attended the Partridge Military School and afterward became one of its tutors.

He engaged in the sale and transportation of coal and the development of the salt industry.

He served as member of the Peace Conference of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war.

He died in Pomeroy, Ohio, January 14, 1888, and was interred in Beech Grove Cemetery.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress