My Genealogy Hound

HENRY C. DARST. The farming and stock-raising interests of Beaver Creek Township, Greene County, have been greatly augmented by the subject of this notice, who owns and operates a farm of one hundred and ninety-five acres on section 12. This property under his careful management has become valuable and presents a picture of one of the finest homes in the county. He is a native of the Buckeye State and born in the city of Dayton, November 16, 1830, at a time when the now flourishing town bore little resemblance to its present proportions. He spent his early years under the parental roof, acquiring a common-school education, together with those habits of industry and economy which have contributed largely to his later success.

The father of the gentleman of whom we write was Jacob Darst, who is of German and Scotch descent. He was twice married, his first wife being Mary Coy, a native of this county, by whom he became the father of six children. Mary, the eldest of these, is the wife of L. D. Cottrell and they live in Dayton, Ohio; Susan is the wife of David Huston, of Paris, Ill.; Sarah A. is deceased; John makes his home in Eureka, Ill.; Elizabeth is the wife of Robert Hanes and they reside near Topeka, Kan.; Jacob died when about sixty-three years old.

Later Jacob Darst was again married, his second wife bearing the maiden name of Ruhamah Mohler and being of Welsh extraction. Our subject was born of this marriage; he spent his boyhood and youth amid the quiet scenes of farm life and when reaching manhood was joined in wedlock October 11, 1855, with Miss Margaret, daughter of George and Harriet (Smith) Glotfelter. Mrs. Darst was born in this county, September 23, 1835. Her parents are represented elsewhere in this volume.

Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Darst there were born five children, four of whom are living. Edward is a minister of the Disciples Church and lives in the city of Boston, he married Miss Minnie Souders and they are the parents of one child, a daughter, Margaret J.; William H. married Miss Sallie May Sourbray and manages the home farm; Mary L. and Emma R. remain under the parental roof; Martha J. died when two and one-half years old.

Mr. Darst is classed among the solid and influential citizens of the county and uniformly votes the Republican ticket. Both he and his estimable wife are members in good standing of the Disciples Church. Socially, they are highly respected for their many noble qualities of heart and mind, and deserve special mention as belonging to that class of people who have assisted in bringing Greene County to its present state of development and thus have aided in making America what it is to-day, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Now in the evening of their well-spent lives Mr. Darst and his wife can look back upon years of fruitful labor and forward to the great unknown with pleasure, knowing that they will leave behind them at death the priceless memorial of a world made better by their lives.