Born in Willoughby, Ohio on August 16, 1860, he moved to Nebraska in 1879. He studied law at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, Kansas and was admitted to the bar in 1884. He set up practice in Tekamah, Nebraska and then became the prosecuting attorney for Burt County from 1895 to 1901.

He was elected a member of the Nebraska house of representatives in 1901, serving as speaker for his first year and as a normal representative until 1904. He was elected as judge of the fourth judicial district of Nebraska on November 6, 1903 serving until March 10, 1923 when he resigned having been elected to Congress. He was elected from Nebraska's 2nd district to the Sixty-eighth United States Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses serving from March 4, 1923 to March 3, 1931.

During his time he was elected chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Expenditures in the Justice Department during the Sixty-ninth United States Congress and the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Elections No. 3 during the Seventy-first United States Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1930 to the Seventy-second United States Congress. He resumed the practice of law in Nebraska and again was elected judge of the fourth judicial district of Nebraska serving from 1932 to 1948. He died in Omaha, Nebraska on June 1, 1949 and is buried in Tekamah Cemetery.