sentences:  He served as a member of the New York State Assembly in 1835, and a Justice of the Peace in 1838.In 1837 he was active in organizing residents in the Southern Tier to lobby the New York and Lake Erie Railroad to create the Cohocton Route, which aided in the economic development of New York's central and southwestern counties.He was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1839 – March 3, 1841).