Theodore Sedgwick Gold
(1818 - 1906)
Page 1821, # 8847

Theodore Sedgwick Gold

Honorable THEODORE SEDGWICK GOLD, son of Dr. Samuel Watson and Phebe Cleveland, prepared for college at the Goshen (Conn.) Academy, and under a private tutor; entered Yale College from Goshen, and was a member of the class throughout the course; graduated 1838. He spent 3 years after graduation as teacher in the Goshen and Waterbury (Conn.) Academies, and as a student of medicine, botany, and mineralogy at New Haven.
Residence at Goshen to 1842, and since that time on Cream Hill, Cornwall, where in 1842 he began farming with his father with no resources but their much neglected farm. In 1844 they established on their farm the Cream Hill Agricultural School which was successfully conducted till its close in 1868. On this farm of some 400 acres, more has been done by him in clearing land from rocks and in building heavy stone walls, than on any farm in the State. The advancement of the general agricultural interests of the State has been a favorite work with him. He originated the movement in 1850 which resulted in the formation 1852 of the Connecticut Agricultural Society, and from its beginning has held some official position in its control. In 1866, at the establishment of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, he was chosen its Secretary, which office he still holds.

In 1864  with the aid of the names of other corporators, obtained from the General Assembly a charter for the ” Conn. Soldiers’ Orphan Home,” located at Mansfield, Conn., and during the maintenance of this institution, or till 1874, was secretary of the corporation. He was one of the editors of The Homestead, an agricultural paper published at Hartford, Conn.; and 1878 published a History of Cornwall. [See Bibliograhy, Chap. IV.] Though mostly confined to his farm, he has visited nearly all the States and Territories. In public and in private life he has shown untiring energy and ability. By public lectures, newspaper articles, and personal appeals he has, for many years, been at the head of whatever has been done in Connecticut in his favorite department. — From Biographical Record of the Class of i838 in Yale College, printed for Private Distribution 1879, p. 65. Mr. Gold has been Secretary of the Housatonic Valley, Conn., Milk Producers’ Association from its formation 1872 ; Secretary of the Farmers’ Club, West Cornwall (the oldest in Conn.) from its origin 1842 ; Member of the Board of Control of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station continuously from its foundation 1877, and of its Executive Committee; a Trustee of Storrs’ Agricultural School (now the Connecticut Agricultural College) from its foundation in 1881 at Mansfield, (present term expires July, 1901). He was also Agent for the Department of Agriculture for Collection of Statistics for Connecticut, appointed July 15, 1882; a Trustee of the New England Agricultural Society; a Fellow of the American Agricultural Association ; Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science of the United States and Canada — elected at the fourth meeting ; Treas. of State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry; Member of the Wisconsin Historical Society; Member of the Connecticut Historical Society — elected Feb. 4, 1890 — before which body he read June 2, 1891, his paper on “The Foreign Mission School, established in Cornwall 1816”; was elected one of the Vice-Presidents of that Society May 25, 1897. Mr. Gold has held offices in Church and State schools. Mr. Gold is a prominent member of the Republican party, by whom he was nominated 1885 for State Senator, 19th District Conn., but, this constituency being strongly Democratic, his opponent was elected. Mr. Gold is a subscriber for this Genealogy.
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