 Born at Piqua, Ohio, he attended Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio, and then studied law thereafter being admitted to the bar approximately 1842 and then moved to Dayton, Ohio where he practiced law in the private sector.Here he received a public sector appointment and from 1845 to 1849, he served as the U.S. Postmaster of Dayton.As word of the discovery of gold in California spread eastward, in 1849 he left his Office in Ohio and moved to San Francisco, California.