Bishop was born in Sidney, New York, and attended Unadilla Academy, Cooperstown Seminary and Walton Academy, all in Upstate New York, after which he taught school for several years.
During the American Civil War, he enlisted as a private in Company C, Forty-third Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, in 1861, and was discharged in December 1862 because of a wound which necessitated the amputation of his right arm.[1]
He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-nomination in 1906 and resumed the practice of law in Ludington. He served as a member of the Michigan constitutional convention in 1907 and was appointed a member of the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission in December 1907 and served until the work of the commission was completed.[citation needed]