John Darrington is one of my paternal great grandfathers.  While his “blood” flows through my veins, I may not be part of his eternal family.  Let me explain.

    John was born May 30, 1850, in Eynesbury, Huntingdon Shire, England.  His mother was Ann Darrington.  His biological father was William Woods.  Ann and William married in 1858.  However, John was raised by Ann’s parents, Charles Darrington (1797-) and Sarah Garret (1803-) and he took the Darrington family name.

    When John was 15, he came to the United States of America with the Jimmie Chandler family who had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church).  They sailed from Liverpool with a company of Mormon emigrants bound for Utah.  After nine weeks, they landed in New York Harbor.  From there he road the railroad to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  John secured a job as a teamster and crossed the plains in the Horton D. Haight Company in 1866.  He drove two yokes of oxen and took care of them on the journey to the Salt Lake Valley.  Shortly after reaching Salt Lake City he went to Willard, Utah with Jimmie Chandler where he grew to manhood working and living with different settlers.

    John worked on the Union Pacific and was present when the Golden Spike was driven connecting the east and west ends of the transcontinental line near Promontory, Utah.

    In 1872, John followed Bill Darrington, Dick Ward, and several other families who had become disaffected with some of the teachings of Brigham Young to Iowa.  Bill and John settled in the Pigeon Creek area about 15 miles northwest of Council Bluffs.  After his second winter in Iowa, John settled all his debts and told Bill that he was going back to Utah.  “I guess, I’m one of Brigham’s lambs after all,” he said.

    While living in Willard, Utah, John met Sarah Jane Lowe and they began courting.  Sarah Jane’s family was not in favor of the relationship.  John was not a member of the Church, he had no family in the area, he was poor, and he was nine years older than her.  Regardless, they married in October 1879.

    In the Fall of 1879, John went with Fred Beecher, RH Parrish, and others to Elba, Cassia, Idaho, and filed on some land.  After securing the land, he went back to Willard.  Early in the Spring of 1880, John and Sarah Jane moved to Elba.  They moved into a little log cabin at the foot of the hill with a dirt roof, no windows and the side of a wagon box for a door.  Sarah sat down and cried.  John took his hat off and thanked God for this first house that he could call his own.

    Their first child, John Charles, was born in this house.  During the year John Charles was born, John worked in the canyon securing logs that allowed him to build two rooms on the front of the house.  Clark and Fred were born after the room addition.  John’s 4th son, Richard, was born August 1, 1886.  Tragically, Sarah Jane died just 2 weeks later from complications following the delivery.  Mary Ellen Ward Lowe took baby Richard to Willard, Utah to care for him but he died in January 1887.

    John was left alone in the world with no relatives to help him out and to care for his three little boys.  The world looked pretty blue to him.  His brother in law, Richard Lowe, and his father in law, John Lowe, counseled him to get married to some good woman that would be a mother to his boys.  John knew a widow by the name of Sarah Maria Perry Stokes living in Three Mile Creek whose husband, William Stokes, had died the summer before.  He went and talked it over with her.  She had four children and no home.  After due consideration, they decided to marry and raise their families together. 

    John’s brother in law, Peter Lowe who was Justice of the Peace, married them in February 1887.  They moved to John’s place in Elba. 

    In the spring of 1887, John was baptized a member of the LDS Church by Fred Beecher and confirmed by Bishop Thomas Taylor in Elba.  After joining the Church, John was active all the rest of his life and served in various leadership positions. 

    On November 4,1890, John took his new wife and his 3 sons to the Logan Temple.  Sarah Maria Perry Stokes Darrington performed the proxy work for Sarah Jane Lowe including standing in for her while John was sealed to Sarah Jane Lowe.  John’s 4 sons with Sarah Jane Lowe (with Edmond Homer serving as proxy for Richard) were then sealed as an eternal family.

    In addition to the children from their first marriages, John and Sarah Maria Stokes had 7 children together.  My grandmother, Sarah Jane Darrington was one of those children.  Since her mother, Sarah Maria Perry Stokes Darrington, had been sealed to her first husband, William Stokes, in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, Sarah Jane Darrington and her 6 siblings are part of the William Stokes eternal family by right of sealing. (This is the opinion of Clark Darrington).

   

Read John’s life history written by his son, Clark: John Darrington biography.pdf

John Darrington and Sarah Jane Lowe.pdf