Armstrong County PA Archives Biographies.....Darin, John Jackson February 9, 1825 - October 8, 1904
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Source: "History of Henry County, Illinois", Volume II, Chicago: The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1910.
Author: Henry L. Kiner

John Jackson Darin, agriculturist and stock raiser, of 
Phenix Township, was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, 
February 9, 1825.  He was the elder of son of John Jackson 
Darin, Sr., a native of County Tyrone, Ireland.  Bidding 
adieu to the Emerald Isle amid the stormy scenes that beset 
that country during the years just preceding 1800, he sailed 
for America, stopping for a time at Philadelphia before 
finally settling in the vicinity of Pittsburg, then known as 
Fort Duquesne on the very border of the wild backwoods.  The 
father was endowed with rugged health and sturdy habits 
accredited to Erin¹s sons, and it was well for there was 
need for health and thrift, for brain and brawn in those 
early days.  He paid several visits to the Darin homestead 
on Pink Prairie, and at the time of his death was 
approaching his ninetieth birthday.

And so it was the subject of this sketch began his long and 
useful life in the Keystone state.  Mr. Darin¹s boyhood was 
spent not unlike that of other Pennsylvania boys of that 
time and region.  His education was obtained in the public 
schools and in the great university of practical experience. 
He had not yet attained his majority when he was given the 
position of lock tender on the Pennsylvania Canal, between 
Apollo and Saltsburg, near his home.  This place he filled 
until promoted to a clerkship in the canal warehouses of 
Leech & Company, at Pittsburg.  It was while engaged in this 
work that he became acquainted with Miss Eleanor Clarke, who 
had just finished a course in the public schools of 
Allegheny.

Early in the '50s Mr. Darin became enthused with the reports 
coming from the New Eldorado, in the land by the Golden 
Gate, and early in 1852 he joined a party of young men who 
planned to make the voyage to California by sailing vessel 
via Cape Horn.  When they reached New York, the company 
became separated, and Mr. Darin finally went without his 
companions, making the trip via the Isthmus of Panama.  From 
the Isthmus to San Francisco he suffered greatly from 
exposure and privation.  The vessel on which he had engaged 
passage proved to be old, poorly manned, and but scantily 
provisioned, while the greedy captain took on board double 
the number of passengers he could feed and quarter.  When 
Mr. Darin bought his ticket he was assured that first class 
meals and a comfortable berth would be provided throughout 
the voyage.  Once out at sea, however, the only fare 
provided consisted of 'salt Horse,' sour beans and hardtack, 
while his 'stateroom berth' was on top of the crates and 
boxes on the upper deck, with the sky for a roof.  The 
protests of passengers and crew finally bordered on mutiny 
and rebellion, and the captain was compelled to put in at a 
Mexican port and take on a store of provisions.  Upon 
arrival at San Francisco, Mr. Darin lost no time in getting 
to the heart of the section where placer mining was yielding 
good returns.  Here for two years his rugged constitution 
enabled him to endure the homely fare and hard work of the 
mining camp without feeling any great hardship, and in that 
time he collected a goodly quantity of the precious yellow 
metal.

Early in the autumn of 1854 he returned to Pittsburg, where 
for a short time he tarried with his father, before hurrying 
on to Rushville in the Prairie state to which point the 
Clarke family had removed from Allegheny.  Coming first to 
Henry County, he purchased a farm on Pink Prairie, in Phenix 
Township, then journeyed on to Schuyler County, where, on 
September 21, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss 
Eleanor Clarke, who for nearly fifty years following was 
spared to be his faithful helpmeet, guide and counsellor.  
Mr. Darin resided on the old homestead up to the time of his 
death, thus rounding out a full half century in the one 
home.  Often, when in a reminiscent mood, he would refer to 
his lack of practical farming experience when he settled in 
Henry County, and said he had to ask his wife and an 
obliging neighbor to teach him how to harness and hitch his 
team.  Yet being endowed with that valuable quality 
'stickability' he steadily persevered, and by the practice 
of economy and frugality, he became one of the foremost 
farmers and stock raisers in Henry County, and from time to 
time farm after farm was added to the original homestead.  
In manner Mr. Darin was a man of quiet reserved habits and 
enjoyed excellent health.  He was proud of the fact that he 
had rounded out a full three-quarters of a century before 
suffering an illness of sufficient severity to require the 
attendance of a physician at his home.

Mr. Darin filled various elective offices in his township.  
In politics he was a Democrat, but in the days when war 
clouds darkened our country he was a firm believer in the 
doctrines advocating the abolition of slavery.  His brother, 
Thomas H. Darin, was associated with him in farming when the 
Rebellion broke out, and enlisted in Company I, One Hundred 
and Twelfth Illinois Volunteers, and died while suffering in 
the Rebel prison at Andersonville.

Mr. Darin several times journeyed back to visit his old 
Pennsylvania home and in 1901, accompanied by his wife, he 
made a tour of the Pacific states, to view again the scenes 
of his experiences in the mining camps, and to visit 
relatives in California and Oregon, and this journey 
furnished them many pleasant thoughts during the remainder 
of their days.  Mr. Darin gave substantial support to both 
church and school.  He was a kind neighbor, an honorable, 
upright citizen, and a notable example of Henry County¹s 
self-made men‹one whose willing hands and determined head 
together with good habits and clean life made it but a 
natural consequence that he should succeed in his chosen 
field of labor.

When Mr. Darin came to Henry County, he found surrounding 
his new home a broad expanse of wild, virgin prairie 
carpeted thick with a luxuriant growth of wild blossoms of a 
pink hue nodding a welcome in the sunshine and breeze‹a 
veritable 'Pink Prairie.'  During his fifty years on the 
original farm he witnessed the laying off of this same 
expanse of prairie into a checkerboard of farms, and 
hundreds of beautiful homes, and bulging cribs and granaries 
and big red barns crowd the landscape where in 1854 the 
straggling log cabins of the settlers in the same region 
could readily be numbered on the fingers of one hand.

On the morning of October 8, 1904, Mr. Darin was called from 
earth to enjoy forever the Home not made by earthly hands, 
whither his good wife had preceded him, and where only the 
joys and noble thoughts and acts of this life can be 
remembered.  Four sons and three daughters were left to 
honor his memory.  But in a brief two weeks the eldest son, 
Clarke James, was called to rejoin the parents gone before.

He who has lived to labor and love has not lived in vain.


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