Charles Hial Darling

Biography

Darling was born in Woodstock, Vermont on May 9, 1859. He was educated at Green Mountain Perkins Academy and Montpelier Seminary, and went to college at Tufts, receiving his A.B. in 1884. He was admitted to the bar in 1886, and set up a law practice in Bennington, Vermont. A Republican, he was appointed as a municipal judge in 1887 by Governor of Vermont Ebenezer J. Ormsbee, and subsequently reappointed by each governor until 1901. In 1889, he married Agnes C. Norton of Bennington, and together the couple would have three daughters, Margaret, Alice, and Elizabeth. He formed a law partnership with Orion Metcalf Barber in 1896.

Darling was elected village president of Bennington in 1895, and in 1896-97, he represented Bennington in the Vermont House of Representatives. He was elected president of the Vermont Bar Association in 1900.

In 1901, President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt nominated Darling as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Darling held this office from December 17, 1901 until October 30, 1905.

Upon leaving Washington, D. C. in 1906, Darling settled in Burlington, Vermont.

Darling was active with the Sons of the American Revolution, serving as its president in 1908, and with the Vermont Historical Society, of which he was a life member. He was also an active Freemason.