Sacramento County
Biographies
GEORGE W.
DARLING
GEORGE W. DARLING, agriculturist, was born in the city of Dublin, Ireland. His parents, John and Margaret (Satterweight) Darling, emigrated to America and resided in this country the remainder of their lives; the father, who was a machinist by trade, dying in 1872, at the age of sixty-five years, and the mother in 184-, at the age of forty-five. In their family were nine children: James, John, William, Charles, George W., Frederick, Mary, Margaret and Eliza. All are now dead except Charles and George W. The latter came to America in 1850, by the way of Cape Horn, landing in San Francisco, being six months on the voyage, on a vessel also named Cape Horn. He followed mining on Mississippi Bar four years, with good success, and then located on a ranch on the Auburn road and pursued the calling of agriculture, etc., until 1860; next he kept a hotel, the California House, five months in Carson City; selling that property, he returned to this county and purchased his present ranch of 400 acres, eighteen miles from the county seat, and four miles from Folsom. Grain-raising is his specialty. He came to California with but little means, and has seen his share of the ups and downs of a pioneer’s life. He has made his way by hard work, industry and economy. He is a man of energy and perseverance, and retains his youthful appearance and vigor in a marked degree. When he purchased his present place it was unimproved, perfectly wild and covered with oak; he was one of the first in this settlement. In January, 1888, he was burned out, when he sustained a loss of about $6,000; but he is already on the rapid road to full recovery. He kept a diary from 1865 to the time of the fire, in which he recorded all the changes in the weather and events worthy of note; but that conflagration consumed it. Its loss is greatly regretted, for it had been of considerable service to him as well as his neighbors. His brother John, the only brother he had at the time, died at New Orleans. Mr. Darling was married in 1858, to Miss Ellen, daughter of Katherine Mullen. She died June 14, 1874, leaving three children, one son and two daughters; Willliam T., who was born July 11, 1859, and married Ettie Allen, a native of Placer County; Ida May, born May 1, 1862, is the wife of Thomas W. Ward of this county; and Margaret E., born March 19, 1864, died April 27, 1883.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of
Sacramento County, California. Page 694. Lewis Publishing
Company. 1890.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.