Born in
St. Louis, Missouri, he was educated in the public schools. For many years he was engaged in farming, stock-raising, and railroad construction. He settled in the
Wyoming Territory in 1887, was mayor of
Newcastle from 1888 to 1895, and served in
Congress from 1895 to 1897 and once again from 1899 to 1923. He was majority leader in the
Sixty-sixth and
Sixty-seventh Congresses on the floor of the House and took a prominent part in framing the legislation passed by that body. He took an active part in all the Republican conventions from 1902 to 1924 when he was a chairman at the
1924 Republican National Convention. He died in 1939 in
Washington, D.C. ==References==