Born in Trumbull Co., Ohio, April 5, 1815; family moved to Butler Co., Pa., in 1825; to Lake Co., Ind., in 1837 and to Freeport, Ill., in 1838. Admitted to the bar in 1840, practice in Freeport. Served as a judge of the probate court of Stephenson County in 1842; postmaster of Freeport in 1844; State district attorney in 1845. He established the first weekly newspaper (The Prairie Democrat) in Stephenson Co., Elected to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849 as a Democrat. Elected to the State house of representatives in 1854, serving as speaker; elected first mayor of Freeport, Ill., in 1855. Was a delegate to the 1861 peace convention in Washington, D.C. in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war. He enlisted in the Union Army May 24, 1861, and served as colonel of the Fifteenth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, until his resignation due to ill health in 1862.
He was a member of the constitutional convention in 1863 and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 1871. Then moved to Chicago to resume the practice of law.