Son of Thomas Darling (Yale 1803), an East India Trading merchant of New York& Frances Frith Darling.
Upon graduation, he entered business in New York, his native city, later he turned to the manufacturing business in Connecticut and New York. He lived in North Carolina for several years as he was interested in a gold mine there, but when the Civil War broke out, he moved northward and joined the Navy. After the war he was a part of coal mining in Ohio. Cataracts became a problem for him,leaving him almost blind and he had to give up the coal mining business. In 1871, he had a sucessful operation, and with his sight restored, a year later was able to be restored to the business.
Conflicting records indicate death may have occurred in either Connecticut or New York County.