Armstrong County PA Archives Biographies.....Darin, Eleanor Clark March 19, 1827 - March 11, 1902
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Source: "History of Henry County, Illinois", Volume II, Chicago: The Pioneer Publishing Company, 1910.
Author: Henry L. Kiner

When our infancy is almost forgotten and our boyhood long 
departed, though it seems but as yesterday; when life 
settles down upon us and we doubt whether to call ourselves 
young any more, then it is good to steal away occasionally 
from all society and let the mind dwell upon the blessings 
of our golden yesterday.  Far on the blue mountains of our 
dim childhood, toward which we ever turn and look, stand the 
mothers who marked out to us from thence our life;--the most 
blessed age must be forgotten ere we can forget the warmest 
heart.  But, though we gather up all the tender memories, 
all the lights and shades of the heart, all the greetings, 
reunions, and home affections, yet we cannot paint a 
word-picture of that loving mother who is the subject of 
this sketch.

The records of the Clarke 'Family Tree' trace back to the 
years preceding the discovery of American by Columbus.  The 
Clarke annals previous to this are lost in the mist of the 
unrecorded history of Scotland.

About the year 1500 two of the Clarke brothers emigrated 
from Scotland to Ireland; one settled in Dublin, the other 
in County Tyrone.  Doctor Adam Clarke, the celebrated 
commentator, theological writer and pioneer Wesleyan 
preacher, was a descendant of the former brother, and James 
Clarke, who was born in County Tyrone, in 1800, and came to 
America in 1801, father of Eleanor Clarke Darin, was a 
descendant of the other brother.

Rev. John Clarke, a pioneer Methodist preacher of Illinois, 
who was licensed to preach in 1829 writes thus of his 
brother James:  'My oldest brother, James, was endowed with 
a strong intellect, and being of studious habits he became 
early a good scholar.  He both read and wrote a great deal.  
He was very outspoken on the subject of the abolition of 
slavery.  At the age of eighteen he united with the 
Methodist Church and at once began to hold meetings in the 
vicinity of Allegheny City.  In this line he was very 
popular and attracted large congregations.  He was strongly 
urged by the church to enter the ministry, but he constantly 
declined, although until his death he remained a devoted and 
liberal member of the church, nearly always sustaining an 
official relation to it.  In the latter part of his life the 
abolition of slavery so engaged his sympathies and efforts 
that it seemed the controlling purpose of his life to labor 
for its success.  It is thought that labor and exposure on a 
visit to Kansas in order to bear a part in its struggle for 
freedom occasioned his death, which occurred on board the 
steamboat at a landing almost at his home, September 15, 
1855.

At Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, April 20, 1826, James Clarke and 
Miss Sarah Cooper were united in marriage, and to them, 
March 19, 1827, was born a daughter, Eleanor, the subject of 
this sketch.

Only a few years ago it was my privilege to accompany my 
mother on a visit to Allegheny City, where we sought out the 
old home, and there I visited the very room where was 
wrought that blessed miracle that give the world the 
beautiful character-the noble woman whose memory I now 
revere above all else in this world.  Memory now throws a 
golden halo over the hills and vales where, through laughing 
childhood and more serious school days, grew to womanhood 
the best 'sweetheart' I can ever know.

Early in September, 1854, there came to Rushville, in our 
Prairie state, wither Eleanor had removed in the early '50s 
with her parents, a bronzed and bearded young man fresh from 
the wilds of the mining camps of the new Golden state.  This 
young man was young John Jackson Darin, the lad she had 
known as a bashful sweetheart in the Pennsylvania school 
days. He had returned from California to Pittsburg and 
thence he hurried on to Illinois to claim his own.  There, 
September 21, 1854, these two lives were united, and then 
they set bravely out for a little vale in Henry County, 
which some nature lover had designated Pink Prairie, where 
for the next half century they were to grow old with the 
prairies, loving and laboring for their children.  Seven 
times the Angel of Life visited this prairie home-seven 
times was the miracle of birth wrought, and this sainted 
soul tarried to bless the four daughters and three sons 
until they, too, had passed from youth to Grown-up Land.  
And of these seven the writer is the least worthy to tell of 
the three-quarters of a century this good woman trod life's 
pathway.  Her strongest religion was the creed of kindness 
and helpfulness, though she was ever faithful in the faith 
of her forefathers.  Ever ambitious for the advancement and 
education of her children in morality and mentality, she 
never failed in helping to support both school and church.  
She was a lovable woman, this mother who gave her full 
measure of love and help to her family and community through 
full fifty years in Henry County, and few now remain who 
knew her in the days when Life and Love and Pink Prairie 
were young.

In the early evening shadows of March 11, 1902, I said a 
last good night to this dear one, and she fell asleep to 
this earth.  But in going she builded a bridge for me, and 
some night I'll tread this bridge with willing feet from 
this grey old earth to the Green Hills Far Away, and there 
bid her good morning-for She was my mother.

George Little Darin
Sacramento, California, November 1909

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