HON. HEZEKIAH SIDNEY HAYDEN
WINDSOR: Judge of Probate
H. Sidney Hayden - a descendant in the seventh generation from William Hayden, the American ancestor - was born at Haydens, in the town of Windsor, January 29, 1816. In boyhood he developed no very marked traits to distinguish him from his brothers, except possibly that into the dull routine of farm and school life he infused more enthusiasm, and managed to find a quicker market and drive a little sharper bargain than his associates when trying to dispose of the wild game which they captured each autumn, and on which they were largely dependent for pocket money. At the age of about sixteen he left the farm and entered a country store, from which he graduated two or three years later, and joined his brother in Charleston, S.C. Here, with untiring enery, he applied himself, under the leadership of his elder brother, and on the retirement of that brother in 1843 took the lead of the business himself. After successfully conducting the business in Charleston about fifteen years, he returned to Windsor in 1858, where he has since resided. He has served in both branches of the Connecticut legislature - in the senate in 1866, where he served as chairman of the joint special committee for the care and education of the orphans of soldiers; and in the house in 1868 and 1872, where he was on the joint standing committee on the school fund. He was judge of probate for the district of Windsor for twenty-seven years, or until disqualified by the seventy-years limit set by law for all judicial officers. He was appointed one of the trustees to select a site and erect buildings for a hospital for the insane; has been chairman of the trustees and of their building committee, and has had supervision over the erection of nearly all the buildings now composing the Connecticut Hospital for the Insane at Middletown, which have cost the state a million dollars. His services have been gratuitous (as have been the services of the other trustees), and he has devoted much time to the interests of the institution. In July, 1889, Mr. Hayden voluntarily retired from the board of hospital trustees, which action called forth the following expression from his associates a few months later:
RESOLUTION IN REGARD TO H. SIDNEY HAYDEN
THE CONN. HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
MIDDLETOWN, CONN.
We, the trustees, desire to have entered upon our records an expression of our regard at the voluntary retirement of Mr. Hayden from our board, and our appreciation of his long and valuable services. To no citizen of our state is a greater debt of gratitude due for the amelioration of the condition of its insane than to Mr. Hayden. From the very inception of the plan for the founding of our insane hospital before 1865 to last July, when he retired, he has heen untiring in his devotion to, aud work for, the afflicted in mind of the state. The present condition of this hospital, of which we are justly proud, is in a great measure due to his unflagging zeal. No weather was so inclement, or call so inconvenient, that he could not attend to his charitable duties here; in the early days, when the income was not always sufficient to meet the expenses, loaning his personal credit, and aiding all by his advice and mature judgment. His absence will long be felt at our meetings, and his memory ever be held in affection and esteem.
Resolved, That the above resolution be entered upon our records, and that the secretary transmit an engrossed copy of the same to Mr. Hayden.
Attest: J. W. ALSOP,
Secretary Board of Trustees.
Middletown, Conn., Nov. 4, 1889.
Soon after Mr. Hayden’s return from Charleston to Windsor he prepared and furnished suitable buildings for a young ladies’ seminary, an institution which has been well sustained, and is still in the full tide of success, with Miss Julia S. Williams as principal. He is one of the trustees and the treasurer of the Loomis Institute, an educational institution ultimately to be established with its large fund at the old Loomis homestead in Windsor. His enterprise and investments have added much to the growth and attractiveness of the historic old town of Windsor, in which he takes a commendable pride as the home of his ancestors from its early beginnings. He has heen a large contributor to Grace (Episcopal) church in Windsor, of which he is a devoted member aud senior warden.
Mr. Hayden married, October 9, 1848, Miss Abby S. Loomis, daughter of Colonel James Loomis of Windsor, and a descendant of one of the first settlers of the town. They have one (adopted) daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Hayden, who married H. T. Haskell of Chicago, Ill.
Source: Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut - 1891, Compiled and Published by J. A. Spalding, Hartford Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company, 1891
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