Native of Clinton, New York; attorney by profession; involved in politics prior to joining the 1849 gold rush to California; made considerable fortune in three months following lucky strike on Tuolumne River; opened law office in San Francisco in October 1849; active in numerous legal and judicial endeavors in California until time of his death. (See Shuck, Representative and Leading Men of the Pacific, 545–52; Dictionary of American Biography, 1:202; GQC journal, Oct. 29, 1850.)