He graduated from Adelphia Academy in Brooklyn in 1888, and A.B. from Yale University in 1892. After studying at the University of Berlin in 1892-93, he graduated LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1896. He was admitted to the bar in 1895, and practiced in Buffalo. On October 20, 1896, he married Florence Gilbert (d. 1939), of Brookline, Massachusetts. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1915. He was President of the Erie County Bar Association from 1915 to 1916.
