Delino Dexter Calvin (May 15, 1798 – 18 May 1884) was a naturalized Canadian citizen, former resident of New England, successful Ontario businessman and political figure. He represented Frontenac in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Conservative member from 1868 to 1875 and from 1877 to 1883. Early days Calvin was born in Clarendon, Vermont in 1798, the fourth of five children to Sandford Jenks Calvin and Abigail Chipman. Sandford Calvin, an unsuccessful attorney, died when Delino was only eight years old. Delino later moved to northern New York state in 1818, specifically near La Fargeville, New York, where he farmed and became involved in the lumber trade. This would represent the beginnings of his successful business career in the timber trades. He later moved to Clayton, New York to concentrate on lumber operations. Business life In 1836, he became involved in the Kingston Stave Forwarding Company with John Counter and an American, Hiram Cook, (later, in 1838 it became, Calvin and Cook) and, in 1844, moved to Garden Island in Canada West because the location was the most ideal to collect and raft timber that was to be forwarded down the St. Lawrence River. The Garden Island location was ideal because Calvin could operate within the British (Commonwealth) system. Further, the location, at the foot of the Great Lakes, provided a sheltered bay for building rafts of timber and for access to retrieve the bound rafts. The company owned between twelve and fifteen ships which transported timber, mostly oak and pine, from the Great Lakes to Garden Island, where the logs were built into rafts that were floated down the Saint Lawrence to Quebec City for transportation to Britain to company offices in Liverpool and Glasgow. The company also operated a number of business ventures that enabled Calvin to be significantly diversified. The acted as general merchants, shipbuilders and manufacturers, transported other goods and operated a tugboat service. Calvin's business ventures were incredibly successful amassing a fortune of assets of $460,000 in 1871. Calvin also served as a director of the Kingston and Pembroke Railway. By 1862, he became sole owner of Garden Island and looked after the small community of approximately 750 people who mainly consisted of company workers, serving as reeve when it was incorporated as a village in 1866. With considerable generosity for his employees, his company subsidized a school, an excellent library for the