His father David served as a Vermont legislator and his mother Abigail was a descendant of the painter Benjamin West.

[1] As a young adult, he was educated at Thetford Academy before graduating and working as a clerk in a railroad office.

[2] Soon, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts, and worked as an apprentice wood engraver with Samuel Smith Kilburn.

He studied drawing at the Lowell Institute, then went on to work for Harper's Magazine and various publishing houses in Boston.

He died on May 30, 1926, in Hartford, Connecticut, and is buried in the Gallaudet plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery.