Gaylord was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-second Congress (March 4, 1851 – March 3, 1853).
At the expiration of his term in Congress he was elected probate judge.
He was appointed deputy United States marshal in 1860.
Gaylord was elected Justice of the Peace in 1865, and by successive reelections was continued in that office until his death in McConnelsville, Ohio, June 14, 1874.
He was interred in McConnelsville Cemetery.