Robert Willis Darby

Photo Credit:  Wikipedia

Robert Darby was the first member of the Darby family to be born in the United States. He was born in Cincinnati on April 17, 1842.  What I know of Robert's life comes by way of Edwin Cyrus Darby's family history:

Father's brother, Robert, married Mary Pacey, an English girl.  Had five sons and four daughters. The boys' names: Jonathan, William, Harry, Arthur. I forget the other boy's name.  The girls: Elizabeth, Bettie, Nellie, Zylpha.  Jonathan married and went to South Carolina.  Had a family.  Willis went to California, married there and died young. If they had any children, I don't know it.  Harry married and lives in Avondale where he was born. Arthur, I believe, went to Massachusetts to live.  Married and had a family.  I don't know anything about Uncle Robert and Aunt Mary.  Both died. She went first a good while ago.  So ends that chapter.

So Edwin left some holes in the story -- holes I've not yet filled. I do know, that like his father before him, Robert was a painter. His death certificate refers to him as a "contracting painter." I know that not only was the family involved in the painting of houses, but also used their talents as sign painters. Robert's wife, Mary, died in 1910 at the age of 65. Robert lived with two of his daughters who remained unmarried.

Near the end of the Civil War, Robert signed up with his brother, Joseph, enlisting in the 191st Ohio Volunteer Infantry on March 8, 1865. (They were previously part of the 185th OVI, enlisting February 13th).  Robert was 22.  The 191st was first ordered to Winchester, Virginia where Major-General Hancock was organizing the First Army Corps. At Harper's Ferry, the regiment was stopped and ordered to report to General John R. Brooke. They were assigned to the Second Brigade, Second Division, Army of the Shenandoah. Their only duty was garrison duty in the valley until they were mustered out on August 27, 1865 in Winchester.  The war was all but over when Lee surrendered on April 9th.

USS Carondolet

For some reason during that period, Robert must have volunteered to become part of the Navy. He became a Corporal and became a member of the crew of the USS Carondolet.  I have not been able to find the date of his transfer to the navy, but I doubt that he saw much action by the time he got there.  This ironclad boat along with similar Confederate boats had played a major role in the war along the Mississippi River.  Here is a picture of the Carondolet in a battle in 1862.

Bombardment and Capture of Island Number Ten on the Mississippi River, April 7, 1862
Colored lithograph published by Currier & Ives, New York, circa 1862.

He served enough time, however, to have it mentioned in his obituary.

OBITUARY: (no date on clipping) CIVIL WAR VETERAN DIES - R.W. Darby was in River Fighting at Close of Conflict. Robert W. Darby, 81 years old, 726 Whittier Street, last surviving member of the crew of the United States steamer Carondelet, active at the close of the Civil War, died at his home late Saturday. He had been ill several months. At the beginning of the Civil War, Mr. Darby enlisted with the One Hundred and Ninety -- first Ohio Regiment and later became a member of the crew of the Carondelet, operating on the Mississippi River. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Naval Veterans and Knights of Pythias. Surviving him are five daughters and three sons. Mr. Darby was born in Cincinnati.

Both the G.A.R. and Naval Veterans will conduct services at the funeral which will take place tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock.

Robert W. Darby (1842-1922)

Robert, along with several members of his family, is buried in the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery.  As I've mentioned before, this blog often serves as "cousin bait."  Perhaps one of Robert's descendants will be researching their ancestor and be referred to this post.  Should I hear from one of them, I will update what we know about our Darby ancestors.  

Again I must recognize the contribution of Martha Darby Rutter, who forwarded a copy of Robert's obituary to me and her g-grandfather's Darby Family History.

Update:  I recently discovered through newspaper articles from the Cincinnati Enquirer that Robert Darby had apparently participated in one of the most significant battles of the Civil War near Vicksburg on the Carondolet. The top part of the article pictured was entitled "Vengeance for the Maine's Dead."  It appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer. April 17, 1898, p. 29.

The Darby Connection

I debated when I started this project as to whether or not I should go straight down the descendant lines (Alexander Jones to Charles Henry Jones, Charles Henry to Charles Fred, Charles Fred to John Thomas, John Thomas to me) or should I also include information on the collateral lines. I went with the latter. I'm a firm believer in not ignoring the contributions of the women that the Jones men married. So let me tell you about Mary Elizabeth Darby who was the mother of Rachel Wainright Jones (Pop's mother).

Mary Elizabeth Darby emigrated with her family from Selby, Yorkshire County, England. She was 13 years old at the time. They sailed from Liverpool and arrived in New York on March 20, 1841.

When I first started researching my family, I was really fascinated by Rachel Wainright and her father Britton -- more about him later. When you have a last name like Jones, researching can be incredibly challenging -- but then there was a unique name like Britton Wainright. I decided to "google" his name on the computer and he immediately came up in a family tree married to Mary Elizabeth Darby who came from England. In addition, there were several other previous generations listed. The family tree had been submitted by Martha Darby Rutter of Oklahoma.

I googled Martha and was able to find a phone number and called her up. What a conversation that was! When I told her who I was she went and got the family history record written by her g-grandfather, Edwin Cyrus Darby. She quoted this paragraph to me:

Father's oldest sister married a man named Wainwright. They had three children, two daughters named Ruth and Rachel and a son Thomas. He was killed in a railroad accident. Ruth married a Dr. Hutchison, had a son and daughter, then he died. The daughter was a nurse in the World War and went to France. Ruth died several years ago. Rachel married Harry Jones. They had two or three children. She died young, then he died and the children were put out in private homes. I lost track of them.

When Martha read this to me the hairs on my arms stood up. I told her that I was part of the family that her g-grandfather had lost track of. He wrote his family history about 1937, the year Alwilda died.

Her next statement was the biggest shock of the conversation. Martha said, "You know where they are buried, right?" I replied that I couldn't possibly know that, because until this conversation I didn't even know they existed. She then proceeded to tell me that many members of the Darby family were buried in the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Imagine my shock because I've lived in Pleasant Ridge the majority of my life and even went to kindergarten at Pleasant Ridge School, directly across the street from the cemetery. Martha told me she had come to Cincinnati and found the graves and found the church office to be very helpful. Based on her information, I was able to retrieve copies of their cemetery records. Tim and I made a visit and you can see the picture below.

I plugged the information into my Family Tree Maker program and it said that Martha and I are fourth cousins. We are related through Jonathon Darby, father of Mary Elizabeth. Martha and I have stayed in touch. She has pursued her family's genealogy for more than three decades and provided me with a lot of information. I have a copy of the Darby passenger list when they emigrated from England. I know the family was very musical and brought their instruments with them to the states. There are several members of the family who fought in the Civil War. Martha also sent me a picture of Mary Elizabeth, mother of Rachel and my gg-grandmother. She was one of many strong women from whom we are descended.

For more than eight years, Martha and I have emailed back and forth. When I became frustrated with my genealogical "brick walls", Martha was always there to suggest another approach to solving the problem. I attribute to her my love of this hobby and much of what I've learned. We always promise to meet, but so far we haven't done so. Like me, Martha is a retired teacher. We've both had our fair share of health issues -- but you can't keep a Jones/Wainright/Darby woman down.