Biographical Sketch of JOHN JACKSON DARIN - Henry County, Illinois

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 Erin's 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. Darin's 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 box!!es 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 a=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 counselor.  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 e!!conomy 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 County's 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 barn 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.


(there are pictures of Eleanor Clarke Darin and John Jackson Darin)


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