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t 
 
 DIED, 
 
 At Hartford, Connecticut, 
 June ioth, 1884, 
 CALVIN DAY. 
 
 PSALMS, CHAPTER 37, VERSE 37. 
 
 “ Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright ; for the end of that man 
 is peace.” 
 
m MEMOilMM. 
 
 G ALVIN DAY was born in the township of 
 Westfield, Massachusetts, February 26th, 1803, 
 and was the fifth child of Ambrose Day and 
 Mary Ely, his wife. His father was a substantial far- 
 mer, owning, and occupying through life, from 
 early manhood, a plea sandy- situated farm lying about 
 three miles east of what was then the village of 
 Westfield. He was much respected by his neighbors 
 and townsmen for his kindly disposition, integrity 
 and good sense, and for many years was one of the 
 selectmen of the town. He died in 1852, at the age 
 of 85 years. His wife had deceased in 1838. He 
 was descended in the sixth generation from Robert 
 Day, one of the first settlers of Hartford, through 
 Thomas, son of Robert, who removed to Springfield, 
 in Massachusetts, and who was the ancestor of the 
 family in that State. 
 
4 
 
 Of the other children of Ambrose and Mary Day, 
 the eldest was Ambrose, who settled on a farm adjoin- 
 ing his father’s, being, at the same time, an ordained 
 preacher. He died in 1879 at the age of 87 years. 
 
 Robert, the second son, went, when a young man, 
 to New Orleans, and established a business there, in 
 connection with his brothers. He died at the South, 
 unmarried, at a comparatively early age. 
 
 Albert, the third son, early removed to Hartford, 
 and lived there during the remainder of his life. He 
 was for many years one of the most prominent mer- 
 chants of the city, and was, in 1857-8, Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the State. He died in 1876, at the age 
 of 79 years. 
 
 Mary, the fourth child and only daughter, married 
 Judge Alfred Topliff. The family removed to Wis- 
 consin, where she died. 
 
 Horatio Ely, the youngest son, became a resident of 
 Hartford, and was, for many years, a business partner 
 of his brother Calvin. He died June 17th, 1886, aged 
 71 years. 
 
 Calvin Day received his school education in the 
 district school, and later at the Westfield Academy, 
 which still flourishes, and was then noted among the 
 higher educational institutions of Western Massachu - 
 setts. The pleasant life at the Westfield Academy 
 was a favorite reminiscence in after years. 
 
 Favorable circumstances early led to the establish- 
 ment of Albert Day in Hartford, where he was soon 
 joined by his brother Calvin, and later, by Horatio. 
 
 It was in April 1822, that Calvin Day removed to 
 Hartford, just after the completion of his 19th year, 
 
5 
 
 and there he continued to reside during the remainder 
 of his life. Soon after his removal, he established 
 himself in an independent business, and his success 
 was at once assured. A few years later, in 1828, the 
 brothers, Albert and Calvin, and Mr. Edward Bolles, 
 formed a partnership under the name of A. & C. Day 
 & Co., which firm and that of A. & C. Day existed 
 until 1842. In that year Calvin Day became the head 
 of the firm of Day, Owen & Co., and so continued 
 until his retirement in December, 1862. The business 
 of the firms named was that of commission merchants, 
 distributing the production of various manufacturing 
 establishments, particularly cotton goods, to mer- 
 chants throughout the West, and to some extent, in 
 the South. There was thus formed a very extensive 
 acquaintance and connection in those parts of the 
 country. A few energetic and capable firms in Hart- 
 ford in those years, conducted a very large business 
 of this kind, and made the small city, in spite of its 
 possession of few or no special natural advantages for 
 such a trade, a quite-widely known and important 
 center of distribution. Among those firms it is safe to 
 say that none stood higher for ability, energy and in- 
 tegrity than that of Day, Owen & Co., throughout its 
 long existence. 
 
 Mr. Day’s time and abilities, his remarkable vigor 
 of mind and body, were not, however, devoted wholly 
 to his own affairs. In everything that commended 
 itself to his judgment, as tending to promote the moral 
 or material welfare of the community in which he 
 lived, or of his fellow men, he felt a deep and intelli- 
 gent interest, and in such matters as came within his 
 
6 
 
 sphere of action, he was among the foremost workers. 
 He was felt as an active power for good in the lead- 
 ing local institutions formed for benevolent purposes ; 
 and organizations of wider scope, for promoting in 
 this country and abroad, educational and religious in- 
 terests, likewise found in him a strong supporter and 
 a liberal friend. 
 
 It was noticeable that whenever he took part in 
 associations or gatherings of men of affairs, he was 
 recognized by the best among them as a leader, by 
 reason of his force of character, the soundness and 
 penetration of his judgment, and his integrity, public 
 spirit, fidelity to his associates and steadfastness of 
 purpose. 
 
 In the political affairs of the city and State, Mr. Day 
 was always influential. Never seeking office for him- 
 self, and never aiming to dictate or control nomina- 
 tions or appointments for the sake of exercising power, 
 he was yet always ready and prompt to do his full 
 part in whatever tended to promote the cause of good 
 government, local or general. After having been for 
 many years a pronounced Democrat, he became one 
 of the earliest and most strenuous supporters of the 
 Free Soil movement in that party ; and at the forma- 
 tion of the Republican party in 1854, he was one of 
 the prime movers, a signer of the address to the 
 people of Connecticut, and a founder of the Hartford 
 Evening Press , as an organ of Free Soil opinion. In 
 those days, his most intimate personal associates were 
 John M. Niles, remembered for his services as a Rep- 
 resentative in Congress and a Senator of the United 
 States, Gideon Welles, long connected with the U. S. 
 
7 
 
 Navy Department and Secretary of the Navy under 
 President Lincoln, Governor Joseph Trumbull, and 
 Chief Justice Thomas S. Williams ; and later, during 
 the trying times of the Rebellion, to no man in the 
 State was Governor Buckingham more closely bound 
 by ties of mutual confidence, affection, and of perfect 
 harmony and sympathy of views. Governor Buck- 
 ingham frequently and emphatically expressed his 
 obligation on this score. 
 
 Calvin Day married Catharine Seymour, daughter 
 of the late Charles Seymour of Hartford. Their 
 married life extended over a period of nearly fifty- 
 seven years, and a union has seldom been blessed 
 with more of domestic happiness, or with more entire 
 sympathy of tastes, beliefs and affections. Mr. Day’s 
 strict sense of duty imparted no tinge of moroseness 
 or gloom to his character, and the same traits which 
 had made him respected and loved in all the other 
 relations of life, could not fail to endear him, in an 
 eminent degree, as a husband and father. 
 
 The tone of domestic life was heightened by hospi- 
 tality and by travel at home and abroad. There were 
 four children, all of whom survive their parents. 
 
 Mr. Day was with his wife when she died at 
 Charleston, South Carolina, March 3rd, 1884. Their 
 separation was brief, for his own long life of useful- 
 ness and honor was closed at his home on June 10th, 
 1884. 
 
 The mortal remains of husband and wife rest to- 
 gether on the beautiful heights of Cedar Hill, at 
 Hartford. 
 
 
8 
 
 Fun&rat of Major &atp 
 
 Ji 
 
 N account of the public funeral services for 
 (§/kL Major Calvin Day appeared in the Hartford 
 Courant of June 14th, 1884. 
 
 The services took place at the Center Church at 
 3 o’clock yesterday June 13th, and were attended by a 
 great number of personal friends, including a large part 
 of the prominent business men of the city. Among those 
 from out of town were Nathan Day, and family of 
 New York, Horatio E. Day and family of New York, 
 Moses Pierce of Norwich, and the Rev. Dr. Bucking- 
 ham of Springfield. The American Asylum, of which 
 Mr. Day was president, the Hartford Fire Insurance 
 company, the Hartford bank and the Gas company were 
 present by their boards of directors. There was a 
 delegation from the active company of the Governor’s 
 Foot Guards and another from the veteran organization, 
 and the body of the church was nearly filled by those who 
 came as individuals to do honor to the memory of a 
 man whom all knew and esteemed. The pupils of 
 the Deaf and Dumb Asylum occupied portions of the 
 two galleries. The family and relatives were seated 
 at the left of the center aisle and the pall-bearers at 
 the rigfht. 
 
 o 
 
 These latter were : Gordon W. Burnham of New 
 York, Major Roland Mather, the Hon. W. R. Cone, 
 George Sexton, the Hon. F. B. Cooley and Judge 
 
9 
 
 Nathaniel Shipman. The pulpit was very beautifully 
 decorated with flowers, and in front of it was placed the 
 casket, which was covered with flowers and bore the 
 inscription: “Calvin Day, born in 1803, died in 
 1884.” The services were conducted by the Rev. 
 Dr. George Leon Walker of Hartford and the Rev. 
 Dr. George H. Gould of Worcester. The music was 
 in charge of Mr. N. H. Allen, the organist of the 
 church, and the choir was composed of Mr. C. S. 
 Langdon, Miss Flora L. Hyde, Mr. Clarence Bryant and 
 Mr. Louis Gundlach. Chopin’s prelude in C minor was 
 played as an introduction and was followed by a 
 chant, the reading of the Scriptures, and the hymn, 
 “ There is a blessed home.” 
 
 Dr. Walker then delivered the following address : 
 
 ELLOW MOURNERS AND FRIENDS: We are gathered 
 
 L here to-day by an event of unusual signifiance to this church 
 and to this general community. The members and the quality of 
 this assembly, indicate clearly that something has befallen which 
 touches society at many points, and with more than customary im- 
 pressiveness. Death is not an unfrequent event among us ; has 
 indeed been very frequent of late among the customary worshippers 
 in this sanctuary ; but the death of Calvin Day has something in it 
 which appeals, not to the family affection only, not to the affection 
 of a wide-extended social connection alone, not to the interest and 
 welfare of an old ecclesiastical organization which mourns his de- 
 parture merely, but to the community in which we dwell, and to 
 those common moral feelings which belong to the best portion of 
 all the inhabitants of this place. 
 
 The language of eulogy on a funeral occasion is almost al- 
 ways easy. It is a sweet and natural instinct in our human na- 
 tures, whatever we may say of the living, to love to say and hear 
 good things of those who have gone. But I am admonished by the 
 
IO 
 
 very life and the character of the man of whom I speak, to speak 
 simply and without exaggeration. He was above all things else 
 himself, a man of directness and sincerity. He had, if more strongly 
 than for anything else,' a dislike of display and pretense. Sober and 
 unenthusiastic in his estimates of other men, and clear and truth- 
 ful in his utterances when called to speak concerning them, it be- 
 comes us to be likewise (as he himself would demand) standing 
 to-day by his bier. 
 
 Calvin Day was born eighty-one years ago in our sister state 
 of Massachusetts, in the town of Westfield. He came of a sturdy, 
 long-lived and godly ancestry. The influences of his boyhood 
 home were those of the typical New England household of eighty 
 or a hundred years ago, the households of the old Puritanic sim- 
 plicity, honesty and strength, out of which have come so large a 
 portion of whatever is noblest in our land. In his youth the boy 
 was accustomed to walk some miles to and fro to the academy of 
 his native town, where he got his direct tutorial instruction. But 
 he had all along, the instruction, better I think than any college 
 or university can give, of sound, healthy home -life, of nature, and 
 of the farm. The city-bred lad may have his advantages, but he 
 has not the supreme advantage of that direct contact with nature’s 
 transcendent and variant schooling which the country-boy has ; 
 and there is no place for making a lad many-sided, self-reliant, 
 forecasting and provident, like a home on a farm. 
 
 Just when the lad passed out from the direct watch and care 
 of the household in which he had been bred and disciplined, and 
 wove the nature and success of his first ventures in life’s occupa- 
 tions, I can not say. Nor do I here feel it important to follow in 
 any minute detail the outward events of Mr. Day’s personal history. 
 These have been narrated elsewhere. The daily papers have told 
 us of his removal to Hartford, and his commencement in business 
 here not far from the spot where we are now gathered ; of the 
 characteristic far-sighted sagacity which enabled him here to orig- 
 inate a new method of conducting the affairs of the partnership 
 he and his brother, Albert, established, and of building up at this 
 inland and almost provincial spot, a business rivaling and surpass- 
 ing similar houses in the metropolitan cities of the seaboard. 
 
 They have told us how, as time went on, Mr. Day became 
 
II 
 
 identified with one after another of Hartford’s corporate financial 
 institutions — insurance, banking, manufacturing — and how, in 
 whatever one of them he took part his counsels were always heed- 
 ed as those of one of the soundest of advisers and clearest leaders 
 of men. They have mentioned his long association with the be- 
 nevolent institutions of the city, and his protracted and self-sacri- 
 ficing services on the boards of the asylum for the deaf and dumb 
 and the retreat for the mentally troubled. They have narrated 
 for us some outlines of the part he took, with characteristic inde- 
 pendence of party trammels and of old associations, in originating 
 here in Connecticut the political organization which was to voice 
 audibly, and at last successfully, the pent-up indignation of the 
 moral sense of the land against the great wrong of hum:in slavery. 
 They have set forth — though it may be questioned if they have 
 adequately set forth — the way in which (after the battle of free- 
 dom was transferred from the field of debate to the field of arms) 
 Mr. Day became one of the most efficient promoters of Connec- 
 ticut’s honorable part in the civil war; contributing generously 
 with his money and lavishly of his labor in all those weary days 
 of anxiety and of blood. The story of that period here in Con- 
 necticut wonld be incomplete, and the biography of that governor 
 of the state whose statue is next week to be unveiled amid gen- 
 eral popular acclaim would be incomplete, were not the great ser- 
 vices of Mr. Day in those days of divided counsels, of heroic sac- 
 rifices. of victorious achievements, accorded an important place. 
 They have sketched for us an honest, strong, successful, useful 
 life, which in view of the facts thus narrated, has made this place 
 a better one for his having lived in it ; and laid the whole com- 
 munity under obligation to him who carried the “good grey head 
 which all men knew” and all men honored. 
 
 But good and honorable, and potent for our whole community’s 
 welfare as is the story of the life which has thus been told us, we, 
 gathered in this Christian sanctuary to-day, and professing our- 
 selves for the most part, I suppose, an acceptance of the Christian 
 faith of which this house of worship is a visible symbol, can hardly 
 stop with these matters. We are not permanent dwellers here. 
 This life, with all its vast and complicated interests, is not the 
 whole of being, nor does action respecting it comprise the whole 
 
of duty. And the little glimpse of what is beyond which is alone 
 of authoritative and sanctifying quality comes to us through the 
 lens of revealed truth. And that truth gathers up in the person 
 and sayings, the life and deeds of Jesus Christ. Had I forgot 
 these things to-day and failed to remind you of them as the su- 
 preme things of importance to us, that empty pew and these silent 
 walls would speak out in utterance of them. For Calvin Day was 
 not simply an honest man, and a useful citizen, he was a sincere 
 Christian. 
 
 His interest in this spot, where we shall miss his face so sorely 
 hereafter, was not that chiefly of a loyal parishioner in an ecclesi- 
 astical society. To this organization simply as such, he was in- 
 deed an ever faithful friend ; and many a feature of this altered 
 structure itself, so different from what it was when some eyes here 
 first looked on it — the arched ceiling over our heads, these lowered 
 galleries on either side, this pulpit — are all in a very direct way a 
 kind of monument to his interest in this place, and to the long 
 exercised superintendence, almost control, he had of things re- 
 lating to this society's affairs. 
 
 But his interest in the society and the house was but the husk. 
 The kernel was the gospel ; and the church gathered by the gos- 
 pel’s characteristic power. When Mr. Day may personally have 
 experienced his first impressions of the gospel’s saving power I 
 cannot say; but he united with this church by the confession of 
 his faith in Christ as his Saviour in June, 1838. It was a year of 
 revival in this place, and there were eighty persons added to this 
 membership. That was the twentieth year of Dr. Hawes’s pas- 
 torate, and the minister was in the zenith of his power. The re- 
 vival took hold of strong men and mature women who have been 
 felt in the church ever afterward. Side by side with Mr. Day in 
 that public act stood Catharine Seymour, his wife, one with him 
 in the consecration of that June Sabbath hour, as in all the sym- 
 pathies and services of the nearly forty-six years of Christian fel- 
 lowship which came after. 
 
 A public profession of submission to Christ and of allegiance 
 to his cause does not always verify its genuineness in the after 
 life. In Mr. Day’s case it did. And not only its genuineness, but 
 its power. And just here, I venture to say in the presence of all 
 
!3 
 
 who may have known him little or much in this assembly, we 
 touch on the central fact of the life of the man we honor and 
 bury to-day. His was a life governed by Christian principle. Mr. 
 Day was a man of strong natural passions and impulses. He had 
 a dominating and almost imperious will. He was fully open to 
 the average amount of human nature’s besetments and tempta- 
 tions. Why is it that his name has stood for more than a genera- 
 tion past in this community a synonym for whatever is honest, 
 pure, benevolent and Christian? There can be but one answer. 
 Throughout this long period all have recognized the thorough 
 sincerity of his religious character. His piety was not an exuber- 
 ant and demonstrative type, but it was deep and devout. The 
 language and the manner of its manifestations were marked by a 
 profound sense of reverence and awe. God was very great. 
 Prayer was a solemn act. Worship was not a light and recreative 
 thing ; it was a serious and earnest business. 
 
 His mind took strong hold of the great facts and principles of 
 the gospel ; his heart consented to them ; he was never severed 
 from them. This was what led him to be the man of philan- 
 thropic feeling he was, responsive to the needs of the orphaned, 
 the mentally-beclouded, the deaf and the dumb. 
 
 This was what reached beyond the mere instincts of kindness, 
 or even the principle of benevolence, and made him take hold of 
 the distinctive Christian enterprises of the gospel at home and in 
 distant lands with such sympathetic, intelligent and generous co- 
 operation. This is what gave him a recognized and honored 
 place on such corporations as the American Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, an institution which has no significance unless the souls of 
 men are in danger without the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 
 This is what made our departed brother one of a wider and higher 
 brotherhood than any directorship or leadership of financial, or 
 humanitarian, or civil organizations can give — a fellowship of large 
 labors in Carist’s service, whose loss will be not merely locally de- 
 plored, but deplored by all our great missionary societies, and by 
 many a toiling laborer in frontier and heathen lands. This, in 
 the narrower sphere of this church, made him to its pastor — who- 
 ever that pastor might be — the right-hand man for counsel and 
 support. Loyal to the church and its minister through whatso- 
 
ever changes, we who remain behind him lift up our lament. 
 “How is the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod ! ” He loved 
 this old church. There was to him a dearness in its stones, and 
 he favored the dust thereof. Its temporal and spiritual welfare 
 were ever dear to him. His purse was ever wide open at the in- 
 dications of its need. We shall miss him sorely. 
 
 How hard it was to think of Mr. Day as upwards of 80 years 
 old ! It was not his erect and elastic form which deceived 
 one, so much as his alert and interested concern in all things 
 which concerned living men. There was nothing of the retired 
 old man, a mere spectator of affairs, about him. He was active 
 and co-operative to the end. 
 
 Of Mr. Day’s family relationships this is no place much to speak. 
 Suffice it to say that life brought to him perhaps an unusual meas- 
 ure of its blessings, yet accompanied by some vicissitudes and tri- 
 als, and in its latest months what he felt to be a transcending sor- 
 row. Beneath a reserved and even rather cold exterior, he car- 
 ried one of the warmest hearts which ever beat. Little things un- 
 expectedly touched him. Little attentions moved him as you 
 would not have thought. And standing beside his grave to-day, I 
 should do injustice alike to him and myself, and to the pastor 
 who has lately gone before me, not to say that these little re- 
 membrances and tokens of personal thoughtfulness, which show 
 the warm heart, and win any hearts, were oftener manifested to- 
 ward the pastor of the church by this resolute, and of late aged 
 man, than by any beside. 
 
 But all this hidden sweetness beneath the shell of general re- 
 serve was best known to his family circle. He was a knightly hus- 
 band. There was something chivalric and wonderfully beautiful 
 in the thoughtful little attentions of this outwardly austere man 
 to the wife of his youth and of his age, who passed on so 
 short a time before him, left by her absence as much a lover for- 
 saken as had she died an hour after their betrothal. He loved his 
 home. It was the best of places to him. When she went from it, 
 it was easy to follow. And now he is gone onward as in a mo- 
 ment. Without severe suffering ; in the full possession of every 
 faculty ; from the midst of a loving household ; honored by the 
 community where he has spent his days ; known across the breadth 
 
15 
 
 of the land as a man of Christian faithfulness and liberality ; be- 
 loved by this church and in the quiet confidence of Christian 
 hope, what more could one ask for him ? Such a life is its own 
 best eulogy. Let us leave it where it is. 
 
 “ Nothing is here for tears ; nothing to wail 
 Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt, 
 Dispraise or blame ; nothing but well and fair, 
 
 And what may quiet us in a death so noble.” 
 
 Or rather, since the life which has now come to its earthly end 
 was a Christian life, and the death is the death of one who died 
 in the Lord, shall we not rather take up a nobler strain even than 
 that of Milton, and say : 
 
 “ Servant of God, well done, 
 
 Rest from thy loved employ. 
 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 
 Enter thy Master’s joy.” 
 
i6 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. GEORGE H. GOULD, D. D., 
 
 OF WORCESTER, 
 
 A former Pastor of the Church. 
 
 T the risk of prolonging this service I cannot forbear to lay 
 
 ^ A my tribute of a few words on the bier of my friend. For 
 twenty-seven years Calvin Day has been my personal friend, faith- 
 ful, steadfast, loyal and true. During my ministry here he was my 
 honored and beloved fellow-worker unto the kingdom of God with 
 whom perhaps I was brought into closer relations than with any 
 other member of this church. To take his name from the official 
 history of this church — in all that pertains to its fiscal and adminis- 
 trative affairs — for the last twenty-five years, would be to erase no 
 small part of its records, for that period of time. Although he never 
 belonged to its diaconate, or sought its most sacred honors, no one, 
 I am sure carried on his heart, during all those yeais, more sincerely 
 its spiritual as well as its temporal interests. By the whole training 
 and habit of his life Mr. Day was a business man. But he carried 
 his religion into his business — and his business gifts into his reli- 
 
 gion. 
 
 He was a man of rare wisdom. He combined a sound pene- 
 trating judgment, with remarkable executive force. He had al- 
 most an intuitive knowledge of men. He read character at a 
 glance, and he read it deeply and well-nigh unerringly. He was 
 never misled by self-pretention, or the mere glitter of superficial 
 
*7 
 
 qualities Above all gifts of grace, he prized and demanded in 
 his minister, and his friends, genuineness. To him genuineness 
 was the root- virtue of both public and private life. No brilliancy 
 of intellect or eloquence of lips could atone for its absence. 
 He abhorred heresy in character, even more than in theology. 
 By instinct he was a conservative, by principle he was a progres- 
 sionist. 
 
 All his feelings, affections, sentiments, anchored him to the 
 past. He loved the old paths. His heart cluug to the old ways, 
 the old places, the old customs, the old friends. Every change 
 that occurred in church, or family, or community, it used to 
 seem to me, first of all gave a painful wrench to his feelings. 
 And yet he had too powerful a will and too clear an intellect, 
 and too fervent a faith, to allow himself to be handicapped by 
 unreasoning sentiment, or even the most sacred affections. He 
 believed in progress — in the on-march of ideas — the final en- 
 franchisement of humanity and the latter day glories of God’s 
 church below. 
 
 With all his conservatism then, he was never a croaker, or a 
 pessimist. He never was heard to say, “ the former days were 
 better than these.” He put himself abreast with his times. He 
 lived in the present. He had sympathy with the young. Hence 
 down to the last years of his life — until physical infirmity ne- 
 cessitated his partial retirement — he held unweakened his position 
 of influence in the church, and in the confidence of his brethren, 
 as a wise, sagacious, upright and single-hearted servant of God, 
 and his generation. Mr. Day was one of those men, whom it 
 would be difficult to think of as superannuated, as shelved in 
 business and affairs, or left behind in the march of life. In a very 
 important sense he was a young man down to the very last. 
 
 Calvin Day once a friend, was a friend for ever. He was not 
 hasty to give his confidence. He was considerate and cautious in 
 his personal attachments — but once attached, he grappled his friends 
 to his heart, as with hooks of steel. As a friend he was never found 
 with that fickle multitude, who to day cry “ hosanna,” and to- 
 morrow “ crucify him.” His confidence once given only the most 
 complete and hopeless bankruptcy of character could destroy — and 
 even then his tender, wounded love lingered around the offender — 
 
i8 
 
 as the wood of the sandal tree perfumes the very axe that rives and 
 hews it to the ground. 
 
 Mr. Day was a Christian gentleman. He punctiliously obeyed 
 the Apostolic command, “ Be courteous.” His sense of personal 
 honor, indeed, was of the chivalric type. Nevertheless, he was a 
 man of decided opinions. He had a mind of his own. He had a 
 will of his own, and his mind so intuitively reached its conclusions 
 and his wall was so habituated promptly to execute the conclusions 
 of his mind and his judgment, that possibly at times he did not with 
 sufficient patience give proper weight to the slower mental processes 
 of his less practical and less energetic brethren. But whatever di- 
 vergency of view, or friction of opinion might arise, he never laid 
 aside the bearing or the spirit of a Christian gentleman — and he 
 never failed to convince all who differed with him, that his heart 
 was pure, his purpose true, and his supreme desire ever to do the 
 best thing, and secure the highest good of all. 
 
 He was emphatically a man of religious principle. He was not 
 without religious emotion, but he seldom gave it free rein. His 
 mind abhorred mysticism, and all religious affectation, as nature ab- 
 hors a vacuum. He was himself thoroughly practical, an intense 
 realist in all his views of life and views of men. He was subject to 
 no religious spasms ; what he was one day, he was the next, what 
 he was one week he was the next week and the next month. His 
 religion was consistent, it tallied with itself season by season, and 
 year by year. He had a sound faith, and a deep personal experience, 
 but he did not say much about either. He was a man of deeds 
 rather than words. Like James, he preferred to “ show his faith by 
 his works.’* He stood at his post. He was a man to be relied on 
 in an emergency. He was not simply a fair-weather hearer, or a 
 fair-weather friend. His life moved out from the center of con- 
 science rather than feeling. He was trained under a ministry that 
 believed in the Old Testament as well as the New, and that the ten 
 commandments are not yet abrogated in theology or in life. Per- 
 haps the thunders of Sinai, to the last, lingered in his ears a little 
 more audibly than than the mercy Calls of Calvary. But those old- 
 time pulpits did stanch and solid work in their day. They somehow 
 had the art of laying character-foundations that could last. The 
 built men, as ocean-ships are built, ribbed and stanchioned through 
 
19 
 
 and through with the live oak of moral principle, and thus able to 
 bear the strain of the stormiest life-experiences — an art of man-build- 
 ing, and character-building, that possibly the modern pulpit is not 
 improving upon. 
 
 Mr. Day was a benevolent man by temperament, but far more by 
 principle. He gave away on principle, and he gave liberally, system- 
 atically, continuously. He recognized as a central article of his 
 creed, personal stewardship to the Divine Master he served, and in 
 whom he rested all hopes for this world and the next. 
 
 I have no time or purpose now, to speak of Mr. Day as a citizen. 
 For more than a generation his life had been honorably intertwined 
 with the whole public life and growth of this city. His removal now 
 from so many of your great financial institutions, and as officer or 
 director in the administration of so many of your public charities, 
 will be almost like the removal of some central pillar from a stately 
 temple. 
 
 I hesitate to enter the sanctuary of that stricken home. But I 
 first knew Mr. Day in his home. I knew him as husband, father, 
 friend, for some years before it fell to me to know him in the more 
 public relation of pastor to parishioner. And I then learned, what 
 subsequent years confirmed, that the strong man of indomitable 
 business energy and capacity, and with the shoulders of a giant to 
 carry public responsibilities at his own home, was a little child with 
 a child’s heart and a child’s simplicity. No wonder those wedded 
 hearts were sundered for so short a time. -Life was so knit to life. 
 Only those within the sacred circle knew the lover-like devotion 
 that for so many years brooded over the dear invalid companion — 
 a devotion that seemed to perpetuate the gentle gallantries, and the 
 sweet fidelities of the bridal day through more than fifty years of 
 married life. Father and Mother are now gone. God comfort the 
 mourning home. 
 
 Mr. Day is among the last of that noble body-guard of official 
 helpers who first welcomed me to the pastorate of this Church and 
 stood faithfully by me, in my ministry here. Ellsworth, Stone, Ward, 
 Hudson, Barbour, Church, Goodwin, and now Day — all members of 
 the Prudential Board at my coming and at my leaving, have now 
 passed on, as well as a great company of honored and now sainted 
 ones then occupying so prominently — in my memory to-day — these 
 sacred seats before me. 
 
20 
 
 God be thanked for the Life beyond ! For that upper Home 
 where no seats are ever vacant ; where loved ones never part ; where 
 hearts are never broken, and where all tears are wiped away ! 
 
 May we be followers of them who through faith and patience have 
 entered in through the Gates ! God give to us the victory at last, as 
 to so many now crowned before him ! 
 
 Dr. Gould closed with prayer, and after the singing 
 of “Abide with me” by the choir, Dr. Walker an- 
 nounced that the casket wonld be opened, and a large 
 part of the audience passed round to view the remains. 
 The organ music during this time was a prelude in E 
 minor by Chopin, and the adalgio from Beethoven’s 
 sonata opus io, No. 3. 
 
 The burial was private. A funeral service, attended 
 only by the family and a few intimate friends, was also 
 held at the house, preceding the public services in the 
 church. 
 
21 
 
 Extracts from tfie t’ress* 
 
 The following are some of the Notices which appe- 
 ared in the Public Journals, on the death of Mr. Day : 
 
 From the Hartford Daily Courant, June 11, 1884. 
 
 JTlHE death of the Hon. Calvin Day of this city removes one of 
 1 the oldest citizens of Hartford, and one who was widely 
 known and universally beloved and esteemed. He has long been 
 identified with the growth and prosperity of the city, and has been 
 recognized as one who was always ready to assist in any patriotic 
 or benevolent work. The service he rendered the Union cause dur- 
 ing the war was of great value and will not soon be forgotten. He 
 was one of the men that give strength and character to a city and 
 his death, even in ripe old age, is a public calamity, for he had not 
 outlived his usefulness, even after more than four-score years. 
 
 Major Calvin Day died at half past eleven last evening of a 
 sudden congestion of the lungs. During the afternoon he had 
 been out of doors superintending some workmen. He ate supper 
 as usual, but soon after was attacked by a chill, and later in the 
 evening Dr. Fuller and Dr. Storrs were called. They arrived 
 about 1 1 o’clock, but nothing effectual could be done and he lived 
 less than half an hour. He was 8i years old. 
 
22 
 
 Mr. Day was a native of Westfield, Mass., where he received 
 an Academy education. He removed to Hartford when a young 
 man and entered into business. Mr. Day appreciated the import- 
 ance of Hartford of that time as a dry goods trade center. 
 Western merchants then came east to buy, and this city was a 
 central point near to the factories, and an advantageous place for 
 handling goods. Drummers were nearly unknown, but Mr. Day, 
 early in his wholesale trade, adopted the plan of sending exper- 
 ienced men to the western country to invite dealers to come here. 
 He formed with his brother Albert the wholesale firm of A. & C. 
 Day, and opened a warehouse on the present site of the Cheney 
 block. Eventually, Mr. Day formed a partnership with the late 
 E. H. Owen, under the firm name of Day, Owen & Co., and re- 
 moved to Asylum street. Mr. Day subsequently bought the site 
 opposite the Allyn house, erected the present building and re- 
 moved into it. He continued with the firm until about 1862, 
 when, having accumulated a handsome fortune, he retired. He 
 was a director in the Hartford bank for forty years, and was a 
 director in the Hartford Fire Insurance Company. His connec- 
 tions with other corporations were numerous. He was a director 
 in the Landers, Frary & Clark company and the American Hosiery 
 company of New Britain, and the Agawam Canal company, 
 Springfield, president of the American mill in Rockville, a director 
 in the Watkinson library, president of the board of trustees of 
 the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and a director in the 
 Insane Retreat. For several years he was a director, and later, 
 one of the trustees of the old Hartford, Providence and Fishkill 
 road, retiring when the road passed into the hands of the New 
 York and New England railroad company. His faith in the road 
 was full, and it is due to his efforts that the word Fishkill was put 
 into the charter name. He was confident the road would reach 
 the Hudson. 
 
 While seldom taking an active part in politics, and having no 
 desire for office, Mr. Day was always a valued and efficient worker 
 for his political party. He was an old-fashioned Jackson demo- 
 crat in early life, and was one of the first twelve men in Hartford 
 who voted for Andrew Jackson, when to vote for “ Old Hickory” 
 in Connecticut was far from being a popular act. He was a con- 
 
2 3 
 
 sistent democrat down to the time of the election of Franklin 
 Pierce. The attempt to repeal the Missouri compromise disgust- 
 ed him with the party, and he with D. F. Robinson, Mark How- 
 ard, J. R. Hawley, J. F. Morris, Gideon Welles, J. M. Niles, 
 and others formed the nucleus of the republican party of Hart- 
 ford, numerous other democrats following the lead of such influ- 
 ential men as Messrs. Day, Welles and Niles. These republican 
 pioneers met one night in the upper room of Colonel George P. 
 Bissell’s banking office and prepared the first republican address 
 to the voters of the state. This was just prior to the nomination 
 of Freemont. After that time Mr. Day was a sturdy republican 
 and took part in putting on its feet the Evening Press . During 
 the war he was an active worker, and contributed liberally from 
 his means in fitting out troops. He was a valued adviser of Con- 
 necticut’s great war governor — Wm. A. Buckingham — and served 
 for many months as chairman of the city committee for raising 
 troops. When engaged in this patriotic work he gave largely of 
 his time, regardless of his pressing business interests. At this time 
 or afterward, he never wanted nor would he accept office, but if 
 any committee or other work was to be done, his services could 
 always be relied on. But once did he accept a nomination, and 
 that was for the state senatorship in the Hartford district, at a 
 time when the district was so strongly democratic that his defeat 
 as a republican candidate, was a certainty. 
 
 Mr. Day acquired his title of “ Major ” from having for two 
 years commanded the Governor’s Foot Guard. He enlisted as a 
 private in 1823, became corporal in 1826, sergeant in 1828, lieu- 
 tenant in 1830, captain in 1832, and was major from 1833 to 1835. 
 Among his old comrades in the organization when he command- 
 ed, but few are now living. Among them were Messrs. Roland 
 Mather, Charles Seymour, William F. Tuttle, Charles B. Smith, 
 Joseph Langdon, William B. Ely, G. A. Stedman, Charles D. Gil- 
 bert, Walter Keney, D. S. Brooks, Thomas Smith, and Edward 
 Goodwin. 
 
 He married, over half a century ago, Miss Catharine Sey- 
 mour, sister of Mr. Charles Seymour who died some months ago. 
 Not a death had ever occurred up to that time in the family, ex- 
 cepting that of a grand-child. The four children are: Julia S., 
 
24 
 
 wife of Colonel George P. Bissell ; Mr. John C. Day, Miss Caro, 
 line E. Day, and Kate, wife of Joseph C. Jackson, lawyer, of 
 New York city. Through all his long life Mr. Day was blessed 
 with vigorous health. A day of sickness was almost unknown. 
 
 For over 46 years Mr. Day was a member of the Center 
 church, and for many years served as chairman of the society’s 
 committee. He was one of the men, who, by long lives of hon- 
 orable conduct in public and private affairs, have, by their own ex- 
 cellent reputations, contributed so much to the good reputation 
 of Hartford. His loss, even at his advanced age, will be widely 
 felt, and he will be sincerely missed. 
 
 Major Day was a gentleman of striking personal appear- 
 ance. He was of medium height, but even in his old age, had, 
 until within the last two years, every indication of strength and 
 vigor — a straight frame and an elastic and active step. He 
 had always a smooth-shaved face, never wearing whiskers, and his 
 full head of hair was a beautiful silvery gray. He always carried 
 a care, but it was generally tucked under his arm and seldom 
 touched the ground. It never seemed to occur to him that a man 
 of eighty needed it to lean upon. To see him, even once, upon 
 the street, was to receive an indelible impression of the dignity 
 and power that were in him. 
 
 From the Hartford Daily Post. June LI, 1884. 
 
 HE death of Major Calvin Day occurred at his residence on 
 
 1 Spring street on Tuesday night at 1 1:30 o’clock after a brief 
 illness of congestion of the lungs. He was down town Monday and 
 during Tuesday afternoon he had been out attending to some 
 work which was being done at his home. During the evening he 
 suffered a serious chill and Drs. Storrs and Fuller were summoned 
 to his relief. But nothing could be done in his behalf and death 
 ensued at 11:30, Major Day was a native of Westfield, Mass, 
 and was 81 years of age. His entire business life had been spent 
 in Hartford, being engaged for the most part in the dry goods 
 trade. In connection with his brother, the late Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor Albert Day, he established the wholesale firm of A. & C. 
 
25 
 
 Day and opened a warehouse on the present site of the Cheney 
 block. Subsequently he organized the firm of Day, Owen & Co., 
 and removed to Asylum street, locating in the building now occu- 
 pied by The Evening Post. Later the property opposite the pres- 
 ent Allyn house was purchased and the extensive building 
 erected. Major Day continued with the firm until 1862, when he 
 retired from active business, and the firm of Owen, Root & Childs 
 was formed, being now Root & Childs. 
 
 In early life he was a democrat, and acted with that party 
 until the election of Franklin Pierce as president. The repeal of 
 the Missouri compromise alienated him from his old political asso • 
 ciates and in union with prominent citizens of Hartford, including 
 D. F. Robinson, Mark Howard, J. F. Morris, Gideon Welles, 
 Joseph R. Hawley, and J. M. Niles, organized the republican 
 movement here. During the war Major Day was an in- 
 fluential adviser of Governor Buckingham, and was for several 
 months chairman of the city committee for raising troops. He 
 gave liberally of his time and means for the Union cause, and 
 proved himself a patriot of whom his state will ever be proud. 
 For 46 years Major Day was a member of the Center church, 
 serving much of the time as chairman of the society’s committee. 
 His wife died during the spring. She was a lady of the most 
 charming attainments and character, and loved by all who knew 
 her. Four children survive him. One of them is the wife of 
 Colonel George P. Bissell. The others are Mr. John C. Day, 
 Mrs. Joseph C. Jackson, of New York, and Miss Caroline E. Day. 
 Major Day was a man of the highest personal character, and his 
 memory will be cherished by Hartford as an invaluable possession. 
 
 From the Hartford Daily Times, June 11, 1884. 
 
 ^ ALVIN DAY, Esq., an old and much esteemed citizen died, 
 ^ almost without warning, at 11:30 last night. He was 81 
 years old; but notwithstanding his age and the protracted effects of 
 an accident which occurred about four years ago, and which came 
 near killing him, such was t e native vigor of his constitution that 
 he rallied and was still seen actively about the streets up to the day 
 
26 
 
 of his sudden death. He was out yesterday afternoon, about the 
 grounds of his fine mansion on Spring street, giving directions to 
 some workmen, when, owing to a marked change in the weather, 
 he probably took a cold, for after supper he was taken with a chill. 
 His condition became worse, and though medical aid soon 
 arrived, it was unavailing. He passed away quietly and peace- 
 fully. 
 
 Mr. Day was a man of remarkably good judgment. He was 
 foremost of the very few remaining men who in other years were 
 for a long time instrumental in shaping or aiding many of the 
 measures that so helped to give to Hartford its prosperity. The 
 want of the active aid of such men, in helping forward the meas- 
 ures on which such prosperity depends, has been sadly felt in this 
 city during the last dozen years. Mr. Day came here early in life 
 from Westfield, Mass., his native place, and entered into business 
 as a dry-goods merchant, taking a store just north of the old Cen- 
 ter church. Later the wholesale firm of A. & C. Day was estab- 
 lished. Western merchants (what were “ western ” then) in those 
 days came not only to New York but here to make their purchas- 
 es, a.nd Mr. Day’s sagacity led him in those early days to send out 
 capable men to towns and cities in what was then the west, with 
 inducements to come to Hartford, for his firm could undersell the 
 New York houses. Day, Owen & Co., the later style of the firm, 
 and with which Hartford people who remember back no farther 
 than about 1848 or ’50 are more familiar, was a long and well- 
 known Asylum street house doing a large business. Mr. Day 
 subsequently bought the site, and erected and occupied the fine 
 brown-stone building on Asylum street opposite the Allyn house, 
 now occupied by Root & Childs, the latest successors of the old 
 firm. More than twenty years ago Mr. Day retired from active 
 business ; he did not, however, by any means cease to take an 
 interest in business and other affairs No man’s sound judgment 
 was more largely trusted. 
 
 Mr. Day in politics was in former years an old Jackson dem- 
 ocrat. At the repeal of the Missouri compromise, in 1854, he 
 abandoned the democrats and was one of the early participators 
 in the then newly forming republican party. Mr. Niles and Mr. 
 Welles were among those who acted with him from the democratic 
 
2 7 
 
 side. He was a firm upholder of all war measures, and a trusted 
 counselor of Governor Buckingham. He was at various times 
 “ mentioned ” as a good man for the republican candidate for 
 Governor ; but, owing partly to the failure of the republican con- 
 ventions to see his actual superiority in mental stamina and 
 character, over others who successively in town got the nomina- 
 tion, and partly also to his own disinclination to run for any office, 
 he never was nominated. But his strong and positive character, 
 united with his general sagacity and good judgment, easily put him 
 much above the average material out of which Governors are 
 made. 
 
 His military title of “ Major,” came from his command from 
 1833 to 1835, of the old Governor’s Foot Guard. Major Day 
 had in him a good deal of the true military quality, of the better 
 sort. It showed itself in his erect carriage and high bearing, even 
 down to the day of his death. He enlisted as a private in the 
 Foot Guard in 1823, and rose by successive degrees of promotion 
 up to the chief command of that fine and showy old corps — which 
 is older than the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was major-command- 
 ant when, in June, 1833, occurred the great display in honor of 
 President Jackson’s visit to Hartford — as proud a day as the Ma- 
 jor ever saw. 
 
 His wife was Catharine Seymour, whose death, a few months 
 ago, was the first, in all that time in that family, with the sole 
 exception of a grand-child. He leaves four children — one 
 son and three daughters — all but one married. 
 
 His membership in the old Center church dated back forty-six 
 years or more. He was a highly respected and influential man in 
 his religious as in his personal, business, and political life. 
 
 His striking personal presence will be missed in the street, 
 and in the business circles which he still, even in advanced life, 
 was accustomed to visit. He looked as erect, and almost as act- 
 ive and vigorous, in his old age as he did thirty years ago. 
 
 From the N. Y. Tribune, June 12, 1881. 
 
 ARTFORD June 11. — Major Calvin Day, an old and well- 
 
 known resident of this city, died suddenly on Tuesday night 
 of congestion of the lungs. He was 81 years old. 
 
28 
 
 ]W| R. DAY was born in Westfield, Mass., but began his busi- 
 ^ 1 ness career in Hartford in 1823. He formed the wholesale 
 
 firm of A. & C. Day, and sent experienced men west to invite trade, 
 a plan then hardly known. Later he organized the firm of Day, 
 Owen & Co., and remained a member until 1862, when he retired 
 with a handsome fortune. Mr. Day was connected with many 
 other business enterprises and several public institutions. For 
 forty years he was a director in the Hartford Bank, and in the 
 Hartford Fire Insurance Company. He was also a director in the 
 American Hosiery Company, of New Britain, and the Agawam 
 Canal Company, of Springfield, Mass. He was president of the 
 American Mill, Rockville, trustee of the Hartford, Providence and 
 Fishkill Railroad, director in the Insane Retreat, and president of 
 the Board of Trustees of the American Asylum for the Deaf and 
 Dumb. In politics Mr. Day was originally an old-fashioned Jack- 
 son Democrat, but, disgusted with Franklin Pierce and the Miss- 
 ouri compromise, he, with Gideon Welles, J. R. Hawley, D. F. 
 Robinson, Mark Howard and J. F. Morris, formed the nucleus of 
 the Republican party in Hartford, and helped to found The Eve- 
 ning Press. He contributed liberally toward the raising of troops 
 during the war, and his advice was constantly sought by Governor 
 Buckingham. His title as Major was obtained in the Gover- 
 nor’s Foot Guard. 
 
 Mr. Day married Miss Catharine Seymour. His children 
 are Julia, wife of Colonel George P. Bissell, John C., Caroline, 
 and Kate, wile of Joseph C. Jackson, of this city. 
 
 From the Hartford County History, Osgood: Boston, 
 
 1886. 
 
 ALVIN Day, who died in Hartford, June 10th, 1884, was for 
 ^ 62 years a resident of the city, and during the latter half of 
 
 his life was one of its leading citizens. He was born in Westfield, 
 Mass., February 26, 1803, and was the son of Ambrose Day, a sub- 
 stantial farmer of that place. Coming to Hartford in 1822, he soon 
 undertook the wholesale dry goods business, and became largely 
 instrumental in making Hartford, as it was for many years, a great 
 
29 
 
 distributing point in this industry. From 1828 to 1842 he was a 
 member of the firms of A. & C. Day and A. & C. Day & Co., 
 his elder brother Albert, who was Lieut.-Governor of the State in 
 1 856-7, being the senior partner. Subsequently, and until his re- 
 tirement from active business in 1862, Mr. Calvin Day was the 
 head of the firm of Day, Owen & Co., one of the most widely 
 known of the great Hartford wholesale houses. 
 
 Mr. Day was largely interested in the various industries of Hart- 
 ford, manufacturing, insurance and banking, and was for nearly 
 forty years a director in the Hartford Bank, and the Hartford Fire 
 Insurance Company. He was also connected with the manage- 
 ment of many of the humane and benevolent institutions of the 
 city, and was one of the leading members of the Center Church. 
 
 He was for many years Vice-President of the Retreat for the 
 Insane, for the last sixteen years of his life he was President of 
 the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and for forty years 
 he was connected as Secretary and President with the Wadsworth 
 Atheneum, which he was influential in establishing. He was 
 also largely instrumental in securing the construction of the Hart- 
 ford, Providence & Fishkill Railroad, regarding it as an important 
 means for the development of the city, and took a leading part in 
 its management for many years. He was Major of the Governor’s 
 Foot Guard from 1833 to 1835. In politics he was originally a 
 democrat, but he left the democratic party in 1854, on the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise, and with his friends, Gideon Welles, 
 John M. Niles and others, was active in establishing the Republi- 
 can party, and the Hartford Evening Press, as the party organ in 
 Connecticut. He was one of those who prepared the first Re- 
 publican address issued in Connecticut, and during the war he 
 was a close adviser of Governor Buckingham, and in confidential 
 relations with him. Mr. Day was thoroughly identified with much 
 of what was best in the growth and development of the city, and 
 died at the age of 81 years, widely known and universally esteem- 
 ed and respected. 
 
 He married December 5th, 1827, Miss Catharine Seymour, of 
 Hartford, whose death preceded his own only by a few months. 
 
30 
 
 FUNERAL OF MAJOR CALVIN DAY. 
 
 From the Hartford Daily Courant, June 13, 1881. 
 
 KINNEY on behalf of the Governor’s Foot Guard 
 
 ^ L tendered a general escort for the beloved veteran com- 
 mander of he company. The offer was declined with thanks, the 
 family prefering to have no military display at the funeral. A dele- 
 gation of the company and a committee of the veterans will attend 
 the funeral exercises at Center church. Active members are re- 
 quested to meet at the armory at 2:30 p.m., in dark clothes, fatigue 
 caps, and white gloves. Veteran members of the company are re- 
 quested to meet at the same place and time, with dark clothes, 
 and soft-felt hat and white gloves. 
 
 Many of the corporations with which Mr. Day was connected 
 will attend the funeral. Among them, the directors of the Ameri- 
 can Asylum are to attend in a body, and the teachers and pupils 
 will also be present. The directors of the Hartford Fire and those 
 of the Gas company will also attend. 
 
3 1 
 
 Resofutions of Hesjiest 
 
 a special meeting of the directors of the Ameri- 
 can Asylum at Hartford for the education and 
 instruction of Deaf and Dumb, held June 12th, 1884, 
 the following preamble and resolutions were adopted. 
 
 I N attempting to place on record some tribute to the memory of 
 Mr. Calvin Day, late president of this corporation, the directors 
 feel that they are not merely discharging a duty, but are giving ex- 
 pression to a sense of personal bereavement, common to all our 
 number, and to all the instructors and friends of the asylum. 
 
 Mr Day became a member of this board in 1842, and has 
 ever since borne no trifling share in its administration. For the 
 last sixteen years he has been its president. But for over forty 
 years he has given much time and care to the details and the gen- 
 eral direction of the asylum ; representing its interests before the 
 authorities of our own and other states, befriending its teachers 
 and pupils, counseling its officers, and promoting in innumera- 
 ble ways its material prosperity and its highest aims. In all asso- 
 ciations, Mr. Day’s vigor, integrity, keen intelligence and sound 
 judgment have made themselves felt ; but, with these qualities of 
 his character, there has been displayed in the management of the 
 
32 
 
 asylum, an earnest and tender solicitude, rarely given to any ob- 
 ject outside one’s own family and personal interests. 
 
 Men of strong will and marked ability not infrequently be- 
 come intolerant, but Mr. Day was never the slave of even his own 
 opinions and prejudices. He was ready to accord to others their 
 right of judgment, and to submit to the decision of the majority. 
 
 If disappointed he never became an obstructionist ora grum- 
 bler. He was especially kind and encouraging to young men. 
 Frank, positive, energetic, but generous and considerate of others, 
 his friends could confidently depend on his loyalty to them, and 
 on his absolute sincerity, and thus co-operation with him was al- 
 ways a pleasure. 
 
 To the roll of honored presidents of the asylum in years long 
 past — John Cotton Smith, Wadsworth, Terry, Williams, and Ells- 
 worth — we now sorrowfully add the name of no unworthy com- 
 panion, our honored and beloved last president, Calvin Day. 
 
 Resolved, That as a mark of our respect we will attend the 
 funeral in a body, and that a copy of this record be transmitted 
 to the family of Mr. Day. 
 
 Resolved, That the principal, instructors and pupils of the 
 asylum be invited also to attend the funeral of Mr. Day. 
 
 Atwood Collins, 
 Clerk Board of Auditors. 
 
 Hartford National Bank, 
 
 June nth, 1884. 
 
 T a meeting of the board of directors, held this 
 day, it was voted to place on record the follow- 
 ing minutes regarding the death of Hon. 
 Calvin Day : 
 
 I N the home in which Calvin Day has lived so long there are 
 needed no pro forma obituary resolutions of a corporation 
 setting forth his virtues or expressing regret for his departure 
 and sympathy for his friends, yet we cannot leave our records silent 
 in respect to one who for nearly fifty years has been a director in 
 
33 
 
 this bank. Of quick perception, sound judgment, stern, aggressive, 
 uncompromising in his opinions, his voice gave no uncertain sound, 
 yet he was most courteous, friendly, kind and pure. His coun- 
 sels in times of prosperity were conservative — he never lost his 
 balance ; in those of panic and depression, sustaining — he never 
 lost his courage. We record this brief tribute of our respect for 
 the man, and our appreciation of his long and valued services 
 which his associates will ever hold in pleasant remembrance. 
 
 W. S. Bridgman, 
 
 Cashier. 
 
 TT T a meeting of the directors of the Retreat for 
 (£r\ the Insane, held on the 1 2th day of June, 1 884, 
 the following minute was adopted and entered 
 upon the record : 
 
 a T N the death of the Hon. Calvin Day, which occurred on the 
 ^ 10th day of June, 1884, at the advanced age of eighty-one 
 years, the city has lost one of its most distinguished and respected 
 citizens, whose presence upon our streets, in our places of busi- 
 ness, and in our religious, educational, charitable and patriotic 
 assemblies, has for all these years marked him as a man to be de- 
 pended upon ; as the man whose influence and voice would be al- 
 ways for good order, and for the advancement and promotion of 
 the great and controlling interest of the city of his adoption, and 
 whose great purpose was, to secure the moral and material inter- 
 ests and advancement of his fellows. The record ofhis life is im- 
 pressed upon the city in which he lived ; upon the church of which 
 he was a most exemplary and consistent member ; upon the ex- 
 tensive industrial and business enterprises which have distinguish- 
 ed the city and which, to no small extent, have been promoted 
 and made successful through his efforts, persevering endeavors and 
 good judgment; upon the great religious charities of the times, to 
 which he contributed with an open hand, upon the benevolent 
 and educational undertakings which give character to Hartford, 
 
34 
 
 and are exemplified in our schools, our asylums and our Retreat ; 
 and in his successful efforts when a young man to secure for the 
 city and its citizens the erection of the Atheneum building, with 
 the libraries and art collections accommodated there. His patriot- 
 ism and love for the Union led to his selection as the trusted ad- 
 viser and counselor of Governor Buckingham during the dark and 
 most trying and discouraging period of the war, and the work he 
 did in that direction is entitled to our grateful remembrance. His 
 integrity of character is seen in his whole life, and in the esteem 
 , in which he was held in this whole community. Though he had 
 well-settled and decided views and opinions of his own and fear- 
 lessly gave expression to what he believed to be right and proper, 
 he was tolerant and considerate of the views of others. His lib- 
 erality and large-heartedness is seen in the expenditure of his time 
 and money in the advancement of all good and charitable enter- 
 prises. For these many years he has been an active and efficient 
 member of the board of managers of this Retreat. The benefit 
 of his counsel and judgment is seen in the beauty of its grounds 
 and surroundings, and in the comfort and home-like accommoda- 
 tions of its halls and rooms. In his death the Retreat has lost an 
 earnest friend and benefactor ; an able counselor and its second 
 officer and oldest director, and each member of this board a 
 friend and associate whose memory we shall delight to cherish and 
 honor.” 
 
 Jonathan B. Bonce, 
 
 Clerk. 
 
 M 
 
 Hartford City Gas Light Company, 
 Hartford, Conn., June 12, 1884. 
 
 T a special meeting of this board, called for the 
 purpose of taking action in regard to the death 
 of Major Calvin Day, the following minute 
 was directed to be entered upon the records : 
 
 Major Day was a promoter of this company at its organiza- 
 tion ; has been one of its directors ever since, and has greatly 
 
35 
 
 helped to make its prosperous history. His connection with this 
 company was typical of his character as a citizen of Hartford. 
 Prompt to enter whatever was needed to benefit the cify, he was 
 generous of his time and energy to achieve success and never wav- 
 ered in his fidelity either to his associates or to the public enter- 
 prises in which he had engaged. He illustrated in his life the value 
 of character, and his name became emblematic of business, honor 
 and integrity. During the years of his activity in Hartford he was 
 associated with many men of marked individuality, but none sur- 
 passed him in the strength and vigor with which he pursued his 
 and their generous purposes. 
 
 In testimony of our respect the board will attend Major Day’s 
 funeral, and a copy of this minute will be sent to his family. 
 
 Attest, Thomas Evans, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 M 
 
 T a special meeting of the board 
 the Hartford Fire Insurance 
 June 12, 1884, the following 
 resolutions were unanimously adopted : 
 
 of directors of 
 Company, held 
 preamble and 
 
 A Fy HE REAS It has pleased Almighty God, in the exercise of 
 His all-wise providence, to remove by death our esteemed 
 associate and vice-president, Calvin Day, therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Day, the company loses 
 an able counselor, who has, for nearly forty years, been closely 
 identified with its welfare, and we, his associate directors, place 
 on record our appreciation of his faithfulness to his trust, and our 
 sorrow at his sudden decease. 
 
 Resolved, That we extend to his family our heartfelt sympathy 
 in this time of their bereavement. 
 
 Resolved, That as a mark of respect to our departed associate, 
 we will attend his funeral in a body. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be entered upon 
 the records of the board, and a copy be transmitted to his family. 
 
36 
 
 M 
 
 T the regular meeting of the Board of Directors, 
 of Landers, Frary & Clark, held on the 
 tenth day of June, 1884, the following resolu- 
 tion was adopted : 
 
 T T is the wish of this board of directors to give expression of 
 their loss in the removal by death of our late fellow member, 
 the Hon. Calvin Day. 
 
 The appreciation of his marked services to this company in 
 its time of need, was evidenced by a special vote of this board 
 tendered to him on the 17th of May, 1880. 
 
 And now, lamenting our loss, we bear testimony to his char- 
 acter as a valued adviser, a true friend, and a Christian gentleman. 
 
 The Secretary is directed to enter this resolution on the 
 records of the board and to forward a copy of the same to the fam- 
 ily of the deceased. 
 
 
 N adjourned meeting of the trustees of Wads- 
 worth Atheneum was held Saturday after- 
 noon, the Hon. William R. Cone, the president, 
 in the chair. Mr. J. F. Morris, the committee appoint- 
 ed to draft resolutions upon the death of the Hon. 
 Calvin Day, reported the following which were adopted 
 and ordered on record. 
 
 A lyHEREAS, it has pleased God in his Providence to remove 
 ^ from us by death, Calvin Day, the late president of this 
 institution, therefore 
 
 Resolved, That while the death of Mr. Day is one mourned 
 by other institutions in this city with which he was connected and 
 also by the general community, it is specially one which this insti- 
 tution has reason to most deeply deplore. 
 
 Mr. Day was identified with the Atheneum from its earliest 
 existence. At the first meeting of the subscribers for erecting 
 
37 
 
 this building, held in Union hall, December 7th, 1841, Hon. 
 Thomas Day, chairman, Mr. Day was appointed secretary, and 
 made chairman of a committee to solicit additional subscriptions. 
 Of the building committee appointed February 23d, 1842, con- 
 sisting of Alfred Smith, James B. Hosmer, Gideon Welles, David 
 Watkinson, David F. Robinson, Erastus Smith and Calvin Day, 
 Mr. Day was the last survivor. At the first meeting of the stock- 
 holders, June 27th, 1842, the first meeting after the incorporation 
 of the Atheneum at the May session of the legislature that year — 
 Mr. Day was chosen secretary and thereafter annually re-elected 
 until the resignation of Alfred Smith, April 2 2d, 1862, when he 
 was chosen to succeed Mr. Smith as president, and continued in 
 the presidency until his death. Twenty years service as secretary 
 and twenty-two years as president, forty-two years in all, measure 
 Mr. Day’s official connection with Wadsworth Atheneum. 
 
 For these long and valuable services, cheerfully given and 
 faithfully performed, we feel that his memory should ever be held 
 in grateful remembrance by this institution. 
 
 Resolve, d That we place on our records this testimony of our 
 loss by the breaking up of this long association with Mr. Day, and 
 that a copy of these resolutions, signed by the president and attest- 
 ed by the secretary, be communicated to his family. 
 
 Attested, Wm. R. Cone, 
 
 J. H. Trumrull, Sec. Pres. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
GETTy CENTEi 
 
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