Eli Darbaker
ELI DARBAKER, farmer, residing in Parks township, Armstrong Co., Pa., was born June 20, 1857, in the county, in what was then Allegheny (now Parks) township, a son of Jacob and Margaret (Eidam) Darbaker.
Jacob Darbaker and his wife were born in Germany, and when they came to the United States settled first in Center Valley, Armstrong Co., Pa., removing from there to Allegheny township, where he bought seventy-two acres of land. He cleared this land and erected comfortable buildings, and spent the remainder of his life there, an honest, hardworking, practical farmer. His death occurred in 1892, when he was aged sixty-eight years. His wife also passed away on this farm, and they were interred in the cemetery attached to the Forks Church, in Gilpin township. They were the parents of the following children: Elizabeth, who married George W. Myers; Caroline, who died young; Eli; Salinda; Paulina, who married Sino Myers; and Theodore and Edward P., both of whom live in Parks township.
Eli Darbaker attended the district schools in boyhood and afterward assisted his father on the home farm, following which, as his brothers grew old enough to take his place, he worked for various neighboring farms for several years. In 1892 he began business for himself, purchasing his present excellent farm of ninety-five acres, which he cultivates according to modern methods. The place is richly underlaid with soft coal. In addition to farming and stock raising, for his own needs, he does some trucking.
Mr. Darbaker married Flora Klingensmith, daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Wagle) Klingensmith, and three children have been born to them: Clyde H., who married Grace Weinel, resides on the homestead; Lillian A. lives with her parents; Elizabeth, died when twenty months old. The family belongs to the Lutheran Church, in which Mr. Darbaker has been a deacon. He is a Democrat in politics and for ten years has been a member of the township school board.
KLINGENSMITH. Peter Klingensmith, grandfather of Mrs. Eli Darbaker, died Aug, 22, 1840, aged fifty-nine years, seven months. He married Catherine Wanamaker, who died March 5, 1864, aged over seventy-six years. They had the following family of children: Henry (the eldest) Samuel, Peter, Joseph, Isaac, Annie, Barbara, Esther and Elizabeth.
Henry Klingensmith, son of Peter, married Elizabeth Heckman, who died July 15, 1860, when aged fifty years. They had five children: Israel, Isaiah, Sanford, Fannie and Joseph. In 1861 he married his second wife, who was Elizabeth Wagle, and they had one child, Flora. Henry Klingensmith died Oct. 2, 1881, aged seventy-one years, eleven months. His wife survived him until September, 1896.
Source: Page 693. Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J. H. Beers Co., 1914.
Transcribed September 1998 by Carl Waltenbaugh for the Armstrong County Beers Project.
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