Elbert-Jasper-Randolph County GaArchives News.....The Darden Family April 29, 1906
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Francesca Henle-Taylor henle@fmfproductions.com June 14, 2011, 10:04 am

Newspaper April 29, 1906
The Darden Family
By Capt. E. B. Darden

The Darden family is one of the oldest landmarks that ever settled in the 
American continent.  Tradition that has been handed down says that there were 
three families who came over from Bedfordshire district in England to 
Jamestown, Va.  They came over with the second colony and afterward settled in 
and named the county of Bedford.  Nothing more was heard of the Darden family 
until after the Revolutionary War.  A good many families appeared along the 
eastern part of the state near the Savannah river and close to old 
Ruckersville, which is now in Elbert County Ga.

My great-grandfather, James Madison Darden, was an officer in the 
Revolutionary War, and was one of the minute men that went to Nancy Hart’s 
rescue when she was assaulted and being robbed by the Tories.  He lived not 
far from her and when he heard her blow the danger signal with the dinner horn 
he mounted his horse and road at a breakneck speed, and he arrived on the 
scene just in time to capture two of the men that had slipped through the 
floor and were making their way to the swamp.  They were all promptly lynched, 
and the money and valuables that they had robbed the people of were given to 
Nancy Hart for her bravery.

My grandfather, John Darden, married Elizabeth Harper at Ruckersville, Elbert 
county, Ga., and in March 1811, moved to Jasper county.  He died of pleurisy 
at Greensboro, Ga., and was the first man buried in that cemetery.  His wife 
and five little boys moved on and settled on the lot of land that he had 
purchased.

The country was then a howling wilderness of wild beasts and savages.  But she 
had a brave heart and determination to raise her children and make good 
citizens of every one of them.  Every one who knew her knows how well she 
performed the duties that devolve upon a loving mother.  General Darden, her 
oldest son, represented Jasper county in Milledgeville in days gone by.

My father married Mary Swift, of Madison, Ga.  She was a sister of Thomas and 
Augusta Swift of Elberton, Ga.  He moved from Jasper to Randolph county in the 
winter of 1859.  There most of the family perished from sickness and gunshot 
wounds received from our late unpleasantness with the States.

The venerable old Confederate veteran Capt. E. B. Darden, of Georgia, who 
sends us the above on the Darden family says:
“All of my brothers and brother-in-law lie in your Soldiers Cemetery.  They 
perished in the battles around Richmond.  We all served in Tie Anderson’s 
Brigade.  Hope they will all be remembered on Decoration Day by the Daughters 
of the Confederacy.  If this meets with your approval, please send me a copy 
of your paper.

Respectfully,
E. B. Darden

“Milner, Ga.”

Additional Comments:
Abstracted from The Richmond Times Dispatch April 29, 1906 [Abstracted from 
the Times Dispatch Genealogical Column]

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/elbert/newspapers/thedarde3080nw.txt

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