[3] When six months old, his parents came to America to live in Binghamton, New York, where the father died around 1853.

[3] At the age of 17, he met John Stewart Wells, of Binghamton, New York, and he became an apprentice carpenter.

[3] After working for a time at his trade at home, he enlisted as a mechanic, in the American Civil War, in 1862, and stayed with the army in one capacity or another, with the construction and repair work on railways, going to Alexandria, Virginia, then to Norfolk and Suffolk, Virginia.

In 1863, he was assigned to the quarter-master's department and then was employed in the construction of barracks and prison houses, and in the manufacture of army furniture.

[3] He moved to Teaneck and built a series of row houses and then became the property manager for William Walter Phelps.