US Congressman. From English and Scottish-Irish stock he was born in Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa. Not raised by his own parents, he was a self-made man and worked his entire way through school. He was graduated from Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, in 1879 with the degree of B.A. From there he went on to the University of Michigan and was elected president of his class where he was graduated from the law department at the end of one year. He was admitted to the bar and immediately headed west to "grow up with the country." He married Jessie A Miner, of Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1883 and they were the parents of three sons and two daughters. His political career began as a member of the territorial legislature when he was twenty-nine, shortly after his marriage. He was considered a "free thinker" by men of his time and a "straight shooter" who never left anyone with doubt of where he stood. A staunch supporter of Theodore Roosevelt, who he had known from the time when the "Colonel" was only a western ranchman. He delivered a bold public address for the "Colonel" in May of 1900. He was elected to three successive congresses, the fifty-seventh, fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth (March 4, 1901-March 3, 1907). He then lost the election in 1906, in which he ran for US Senator, with the defeat of the "old guard," but his successor, William H. Parker, died in office. The entire state called for his return to congress. Not happy to wait until March, the governor called for a special election to complete the unexpired term and he was, therefore, elected twice in the same day and took his seat in December. He would serve three more terms until March 3, 1915 having only been out of congress from his first election for part of one term. He, then resumed the practice of law in Hot Springs, South Dakota until his death there.