Shelby  County,  Indiana
Biographies

James  M.  Darnall

                James M. Darnall,  President and book-keeper of the Kokomo Milling Company, was born in Jessamine County, Ky., June 28, 1817.  He was the eldest of eight children born to  Zenas and Agnes (Bridges) Darnall, both of English descent. His parents were reared in Kentucky, and were married in 1816. In 1822, they moved North to Decatur County, Ind., where his father bought a partially improved farm. Here he lived a few years, when he sold his land and bought 160 acres near by. He afterward sold this and moved into Shelby County, thence into Boone County in 1854, where he purchased a farm, on which he lived until his death in 1857, at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife died in Decatur County, aged fifty-four years. Both were prominent members of the Christian Church. Dr. Darnall assisted his father on the farm until he was twenty years old, when he entered Hanover College, which he attended at intervals for three years. He also taught school part of the time, after which he studied medicine for two years at Connersville, Ind., with Dr. Brown, teaching in the meantime. In the spring of 1842, he located at Burlington, Carroll County, where he began to practice medicine with Dr. Anderson. Dr. Darnall remained at Burlington twenty-two years, twenty of which he had been practicing for himself. He met with good success, having a large practice. His health failed him and he was induced to come to Kokomo in 1864. He practiced here two years, when he entered the drug business with his brother and J. M. Scotton. The firm of Darnall, Scotton & Co. continued in business until 1873, when Simpson B. Darnall died, and the firm of Darnall & Scotton became successors, continuing five years, when our subject retired from the drug trade, and soon after became owner of one-third of the stock in the Kokomo Milling Company, and has been superintending since. He has been a lively, energetic business man, and has been eminently successful through life. Mr. Darnall was married, in 1845, to Miss Mary Gwinn, of Carroll County, Ind. She was the daughter of Samuel and Magdalene Gwinn, and was born in December, 1823. They have one adopted daughter, Mary E. Mr. Darnall was in early life a Whig, and later a Republican. He has been City Councilman and Mayor. In 1874, he was elected as Representative of Howard County. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and he and wife are both members of the Christian Church.
Counties of Howard and Tipton, Indiana, "City of Kokomo,"  F.A. Battey & Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1883
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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