farmers, Gold's leadership ensured its reconstitution in 1871 as an administrative and regulatory agency, with the power to quarantine diseased animals, appoint state officials, and shape policy. Gold convinced the legislature to establish the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (the nation's first state-sponsored agricultural experiment station) in 1875. He served as secretary of the station's board of control for many years. Gold was a major influence in arranging for the state to charter the Storrs Agricultural School in 1881. The school became Connecticut's land-grant college, taking away the title and Morrill Act subsidy from Yale. Gold served as trustee of the future University of Connecticut from 1881 to 1901 and exerted a powerful influence on its development. He wrote the trustees' annual reports and continually lobbied the General Assembly for increased funding. The college named its first dormitory Gold Hall in his honor (the building burned down in 1914). The college was the culmination of Gold's use of "progressive means such as education, scientific methods and state organization to preserve the traditional values and social position of the Connecticut farmer." In addition to his state-wide activities, Gold was an active citizen of Cornwall. Although he never sought elected office, he was appointed to many town committees, taking a special interest in fiscal affairs and education. He served as deacon of the North Cornwall Congregational Church for many years. "To him," remarked one historian, "the pillars of society were family, farm, and church." Later in life, Gold became a committed conservationist. He served as the first vice president of the Connecticut Forestry Association, formed in 1895 to “develop public appreciation of the value of forests and the need for preserving and using them rightly.” Gold’s son, Charles Lockwood Gold, also a Yale graduate and farmer, served as the association's vice president in the 1920s. Gold retired as secretary of the Board of Agriculture and trustee of the Connecticut Agricultural College in 1901, at the age of 83. In retirement, he continued to give speeches, publish essays, and edit the Handbook of Connecticut Agriculture and the Descriptive Catalogue of Farms in Connecticut for Sale. He wrote an unfinished history of Connecticut Agricultural College. Personal life In 1843, Gold married Caroline E. Lockwood of Bridgeport. They had three daughters: Eleanor Gold Hubbard, Rebecca Gold Cornell and Caroline Gold Gibson. Gold's first wife died in 1857. In 1859, Gold married Emma Tracey Baldwin (1835–1927) of