He was born around the time of the Civil War, was an organizer for the Knights of Labor, and was Embraced before the Halliwells were even born (the later fact he was quite open about)
he lost touch with his sire, Tessa, during the plague, and presumed her dead...though through the miracle of ST meddling she apparently sired someone afterwards who subsequently appeared in Degen's backstory
He wasn't happy about including so many non-Statesmen on the council...but tolerated it 'cos it was closer to what he wanted than anything else he was likely to see