He worked his way through several railroad jobs successively for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, McGregor Western Railway, Chicago and North Western Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), and as superintendent of the Michigan Central Railroad in the 1870s.
The city of Barstow, California, where the ATSF maintained extensive shop and equipment construction and repair facilities, the town of Strong City, Kansas, and Stronghurst, Illinois are named in his honor [REF].