Putting My Darby Ancestors in Context

Photo Credit:  Wikipedia - Cincinnati in 1841

As mentioned in the previous post, the Darbys emigrated from England to America in 1841. As a life-long Cincinnatian, I was shocked when I saw this picture.  In 1841, the Miami-Erie Canal was completed.  What shocked me was the realization that the canal basically made an island out of the central core of the city.  Cincinnati is a basin city surrounded by beautiful hillsides.  For half a century, almost the entire population lived in the city basin, reinforced by the hillsides and the canal.

Wikipedia describes Cincinnati in the 1840s this way:

By 1840, Cincinnati had grown from a frontier settlement to the 6th largest city in the USA. It was a city of contrasts, with prosperous neighborhoods and squalid, violent slums. Many of the businessmen who controlled the city were interested in good relationships with the slave-owning states to the south of the Ohio River, and were hostile to abolitionists and blacks. The Ohio constitution denied blacks the franchise, and the Black Laws imposed further restrictions. Black children were denied education in the public schools, although black property holders had to pay taxes to support these schools. Black immigrants to the state had to register and provide surety. A black could not serve on a jury, testify in legal cases involving a white person or serve in the militia. However, drawn by the economic opportunities, the black population had grown from 690 in 1826 to an official count of 2,240 out of a total of 44,000 citizens by 1840. Many of the blacks had jobs as craftsmen or tradesmen, earning good wages for the time. Many owned property.

With the city's rapidly-expanding and ethnically-diverse population, trouble just needed a spark.  It came in the form of an extreme drought that resulted in the lowest water level ever recorded for the Ohio River.  The low water level threw many immigrants who depended on the river for their livelihood out of work.  Over a period of several days, several white people (largely Irish) attacked the black population.  For a fuller discussion of what occurred, click on this link.

Jonathan Darby

So here was the "Promised Land" the Darbys, Bickerdykes, and Sidebottoms encountered. This Queen City of the West was just getting started.  This period was just before the large German immigration that was to take place after 1848 as well as a large Irish influx that was to take place during the Potato Famine -- each group fighting for its place at the table.

I've included a Pedigree Chart so my family and readers can better understand my relationship to the Darbys and the generation that chose to serve in the Civil War. In addition to Mary Elizabeth Darby's husband Britton, and her brother, Joseph, brother Robert Darby also served. His story has a bit of a twist. He will be discussed in the next post.

Photo Credit for Jonathan Darby:  Martha Darby Rutter

Joseph Bickerdyke Darby - Part II

Edwin Cyrus Darby, first-born and son of Joseph Darby and Mary Chafer, wrote a history of the Darby Family Tree in about 1937. In it, he included the following information:

Jonathan Darby came to America in 1840 with his wife and five children when Joseph was 10 years old.  The youngest son, Robert, was born in 1842 in America.

Joseph Darby married Mary Chafer in 1851 whose father came from Lincolnshire, England.  Of this union sprang Edwin Cyrus, Willis Henry, Blanch Isabell and Francis Marion.  Then she (Mary) died in 1859.  . . .

Then Jonathan Darby moved to Hancock Co., Ill. with his son Joseph, Catherine and Robert.  He went first.  Joseph and Robert and Catherine came after.  Their mother (Mary) had died in Ohio previous to this.  The move to Illinois proved to be a failure.  Catherine (the daughter) died in Illinois.  At that time, Hancock Co. was on the frontier and the hardship was too much for her.

Joseph Darby came back with his family to Boone Co., Kentucky where Grandfather Chafer owned a farm and worked for him till his wife, (mother of Edwin), died in October, 1859.  He moved back to Walnut Hills in 1860 and worked at his trade, house and sign painter, until 1863 when he married again -- a woman named Elizabeth Garwood. . . .

Joseph and Robert Darby went into the Union army in the spring of '64 and remained until the war closed in '65 when he came back to the family on Walnut Hills and worked at his trade, house painter.  He lived to be 82.  Died in November, 1912.

At the age of 35, Joseph and his brother, Robert, volunteered for the 191st Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  It was near the end of the Civil War.  According to Dyer's Compendium,  the 191st Regiment Infantry  was "organized at Camp Chase, Ohio, January and February, 1865. Moved to Harper's Ferry, W. Va., March 10, 1865. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 1st Provisional Division, Army of the Shenandoah, March 20. March to Charleston March 21. Transferred to 2nd (Ohio) Brigade, 2nd Provisional Division, March 27. Duty near Charleston till April 4. Operations in the Shenandoah Valley in vicinity of Winchester, Stevenson's Depot and Jordan's Springs, April to August. Mustered out August 27, and discharged September 5, 1865. Regiment lost during service 29 Enlisted men by disease."

It appears as if they, thankfully, really didn't encounter any fighting.  As was typical, however, many of the men were lost to disease.

Joseph had nine children by two wives and is buried in the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery.  The ashes of one of his daughters is buried with him.  His second wife, Elizabeth Garwood, is also buried in the family plot.

Kathy Reed at Darby Family Plot in Pleasant Ridge

Grave Marker for Joseph Darby and his daughter, Sarah

Note:  Edwin Cyrus Darby's family history does not agree with the ship's passenger list that shows the date of immigration as 1841 and that Joseph was 11. Credit is due to Martha Darby Rutter for photographs of Joseph, the ship's passenger list, and the family history written by Edwin Cyrus Darby, son of Joseph.