Biographical Sketch of Stephen DARLINGTON (1893); Chester County, PA

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Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania,
comprising a historical sketch of the county", by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by
Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Philadelphia, PA, 1893, pp.
248-250.

"STEPHEN DARLINGTON, who was a constant student, a ripe scholar and one of the
finest linguists of Pennsylvania, ranked high as a scientific and progressive
farmer.  He was a son of George and Lydia Barnard Darlington, and was born in
what is now Pocopson township, Chester county, Pennsylvania, October 28, 1799.
The primogenitor of the Darlington family in Chester county was Abraham Dar-
lington, who came from England about the year 1708.  He was reared on a farm
and learned the trade of saddler, but after coming to this county he settled
east of the Brandywine on a farm of two hundred acres.  His second wife was
Elizabeth Hillborn, and their fifth child, Thomas Darlington, removed higher
up on the Brandywine, where he settled on a farm now owned by one of his
grandsons.  Thomas Darlington married Hannah Brinton, and their sixth son,
George Darlington (father), who was a farmer and miller by occupation and
trade, settled, near the close of the last century, west of the Brandywine,
on the Pocopson stream.  He married Lydia Barnard, and his children in the
order of age were: Hannah, Richard, Stephen, Cyrus, George, Joseph B., Hill-
born, Lydia, and Eliza.

"Stephen Darlington was reared on the farm, received a good education, and then
engaged in farming and the study of mathematics.  He settled on a farm bordering
the Brandywine, and between that stream and his father's home, which had been
previously owned by Henry Hoopes.  This farm was in poor condition when Mr.
Darlington came into possession of it, but he immediately commenced the ferti-
lization of its soil and the improvement of its fences and buildings, and in
fifty years he had brought it up to such a state that it ranks as one of the
best farms of Pennsylvania.  He brought the soil up to garden richness, and
while his buildings were not ornamental, they were permanently finished and
roofed with slate, from the dwelling to the pig sty.  His fences were con-
structed of iron and placed upon a stone basis so securely as to stand the
test of a century.

"On September 15, 1825, Mr. Darlington married Ann Mendenhall, who was born
October 27, 1804, and died March 9, 1885, aged eighty years.  She was a
daughter of Aaron Mendenhall, who owned a fine farm in Pennsbury township,
which had descended as a patrimonial estate from his father, Isaac, who inher-
ited it from his father, Joseph, one of the sons of the immigrant Benjamin,
who came about 1686, from Married Hill, Wiltshire, England, with his brother
John and settled in Pennsylvania, and from whom all of the name of Mendenhall
in America are descended.  Mr. and Mrs. Darlington had five children: Fenelon,
Sarah, Louisa, Emma, and Lamartine.  Mr. Darlington was fortunate in the choice
of a partner, who contributed her full share to the success of out-door as well
as household operations.  She was tidy in the extreme, and busied in usefulness
from morn to bed time.  She with her husband uniformly attended meetings of
worship and business in the Society of Friends, of which they were members.  She
rarely took up a book or paper unless in the afternoon of the first day of the
week.  Notwithstanding this full timing of her hours, she was foremost in look-
ing after those in suffering or in want, and was free in administering unto
these by heart, hand and purse.

"A memorable occasion of Stephen Darlington's life was his golden wedding which
was celebrated Wednesday, September 15, 1875, with appropriate and interesting
ceremonies, a full account of which appeared in the 'Daily Local News'.  It was
really a grand reunion of the Darlingtons and Mendenhalls, families so noted for
punctuality and honesty that it is a common expression 'as punctual as a Darling-
ton' or 'as honest as a Mendenhall'.  A magnificent repast was furnished in the
commodious barn to accommodate the large number that were present.  Addresses
were delivered and poems read by several of the guests, but two of the most
distinguishing events of the occasion were the marriage of Sarah D., the eldest
daughter of Mr. Darlington, to Samuel Auge, of West Chester, who was a guest at
the original wedding, fifty years before, and the address of welcome from Mr.
Darlington and his wife, which was a poetical effort on the part of Stephen
Darlington of so much merit that we reproduce it as it appeared in the public
press:

      'When noble LaFayette from beyond the sea,
      Reviewed the land himself had helped to free,
      Received the plaudits of a grateful shore,
      Which scarcely ever man received before;
      T'was then in early youth, as man and wife,
      We ventured on the doubtful path of life;
      Poor and of small account, we took our stand,
      But thanks to toll and Heaven's protecting hand,
      Enough of comfort 'round our home appears,
      To satisfy the needs of closing years;
      Enough of fame our modest cause attends,
      And not the least, a list of valued friends;
      And now since fifty suns have passed away,
      Gladly we greet you on this bridal day;
      You who with us have shared the early morn,
      Or, who the bloom of later years adorn -
      To all we wish a long and prosperous life,
      A noble husband, or a worthy wife.'

"Stephen Darlington was a republican in politics.  He gave close attention to the
education of his children, and at the close of the day's labor after examining
their work and progress in their studies, he gave them a lesson in the languages
as a general rule.  In early manhood he exhibited the taste and well-read
scholarship of the poet, the persevering tact and thrift and effort of the
matematician; and gathered the self-sought and self-found gems and treasures in
language - while he shrunk not from the dull and slow and sturdy rounds of the
practical farmer.  In his early studies each new effort was crowned with a new
joy (such as he only knows who ascends the golden pathway of art, of science or
of duty), but in later life he confined his efforts mainly to farming operations
and the study of the classics.  Stephen Darlington's long and practically useful
life closed on May 16, 1884, when he passed awayfrom the scenes of his earthly
labors.  His remains were interred in a beautiful lot in Birmingham cemetery,
but he will be long remembered in the community where he resided.  A successful
teacher of the county pays the following beautiful and well deserved tribute to
his memory: 'While Stephen Darlington was a model agriculturalist, he was also
a constant student, a ripe scholar, and as a linguist had few equals, if any,
in his native State.' "