Born in Orange, Virginia, Orange County, Virginia; attended the common schools and the William Dinwiddie School in Greenwood, Virginia; during the American Civil War enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1864 and served until the close of the war; resumed his studies in college; moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1866; engaged in the lumber business and other commercial enterprises; also engaged in the building of railroads; president of the First National Bank of Tampa; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1899; appointed and subsequently reelected in 1905 and served from April 20, 1899, to March 3, 1911; was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1910; chairman, Committee on Revolutionary Claims (Sixtieth Congress), Committee on Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia (Sixty-first Congress); again resumed his former business and commercial pursuits in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, until 1920 when he retired from active business pursuits; died in Jacksonville; interment in Evergreen Cemetery.