Possessed of "herculean strength" and standing 6 feet tall, and reputedly the strongest man in the Colony, he was appointed a constable during the McGowan's War and in 1860 he was elected by the people of Hope to a convention in New Westminster, the purpose of which was to frame and present an appeal to the Imperial Government to introduce proper government for the Mainland Colony, which was then still ruled near-entirely by Governor James Douglas (a Legislative Assembly for the Colony would not be created until 1864, after Douglas' retirement).