The first episode of his life was a service of one year as school-teacher at Sleepy Hollow, near TarrytoAvn, where he was a successor of the immortal " Ichabod Crane," though his career as an instructor of youth did not terminate as disastrously as did that of his " illustrious predecessor." He then entered the law-oflice of Hon. Robert S. Hart, at Bedford, and upon being admitted to the bar in 1852, establislied an office of his own in Morrisania, and has kept his law-office there until the present. Becoming prominent in politics and in his profession, he was appointed to the office of town superintendent of common schools, elected justice of the peace in 1856, and re-elected at the close of his term. In 1862 he was appointed by Governor Morgan surrogate of Westchester County, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Hon. Robert H. Coles. He was elected supervisor of Morrisania in 1870. His election to the office of county judge of Westchester County occurred in 1871, and he held the office con-

1 This sketch was prepared and inserted by the editor.

tinuously till the close of 1883. Upon the occasion of his retirement from a position he had so long and worthily filled, he was presented by the officers of the court with a beautiful gavel, as a token of their high appreciation of the dignity and impartiality which had ever characterized his discharge of official duties, and of their esteem of his many excellencies as a citizen.