Darrach family

JAMES DARRACH, son of James and Elizabeth (Bradford) Darrach, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., June 27, 1806.

After graduation he learned the business of a woolen manufacturer at a factory in the village of Glenham, in Fishkill, N. Y., and engaged with his brother in this business in Manayunk, Pa. The hard times of 1836-1837 led to reverses, in consequence of which he left manufacturing in July, 1837, and for the next year was engaged in teaching in Walden, Orange County, N.Y. He was then employed as superintendent of the manufactory where he had learned his business, until in November, 1840, he settled on a farm near Walden. There he was engaged in teaching in an academy which he founded, and in insurance business, until December, 1854, when he was chosen superintendent of the New York Hospital on Broadway, opposite Pearl street. He remained in this position until December, 1864. The rest of his life was spent on his farm near Walden, and with his children. His health was much broken for two years before his death; in the fall of 1888 he settled in Fishkill-on-the Hudson, where he died after a painful illness on May 15, 1889, aged nearly 83 years.

He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, both in Manayunk and New York City (Rev. Dr. Spring's); he was instrumental in the organization and building up of several churches, and always active in promoting the social and moral improvement of the communities in which he lived.

He was married on April 22, 1830, to Helena, eldest daughter of the Hon. Barlow White, M.D., of Fishkill Village, who survives him, with four of their nine children; of the three surviving sons, one is a graduate of this College in the Class of 1859.

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WILLIAM BRADFORD DARRACH, the son of James Darrach (B.A. Yale, 1827) and Helena (White) Darrach, and grandson of James and Elizabeth (Bradford) Darrach, was born September 23, 1836, in Manayunk, Pa., where his father was a woolen manufacturer. Owing to business reverses in 1837 his father removed to Walden, N. Y., and later to Glenham, a village in Fishkill, N. Y., but from 1854 to 1864 he was Superintendent of the New York Hospital, in New York City, from whence our classmate entered college early in 1855 with the Class of 1858. In September of the same year he joined the Class of 1859.

After graduation he studied theology in Princeton Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1861. He was appointed, May 8, 1861, Chaplain of the Twentieth New York State Militia, and served until the following August. He was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of New York, October 17, 1862, and was Stated Supply of the Presbyterian Church at Winneconne, Wis., 1863-1865; Missionary at Barnegat, N. J., 1865-1866; Stated Supply at Upper Mount Bethel, Pa., 1868-1871; Pastor at Shickshinny, Pa., 1871-1876; Stated Supply at Orwell, Pa., 1876-1877, at Lehman and North Moreland, Pa., 1878-1879, and at Scott, Pa., 1880-1881; without charge at Walden, N. Y., 1882-1889, except during 1886 when he was Pastor of the Reformed (Dutch) Church at Kerhonkson, N. Y.; without charge at Fishkill, N. Y., 1890-1893; Stated Supply of the Presbyterian Church at Mount Pleasant, Pa., 1894, and without charge at Newark, N. J., 1895 Since 1896, with the exception of the years 1900-1904, when he was at Ambler, Pa., he had resided at Newburgh, N. Y. He had not preached since 1904, the receipt of some legacies having placed him in easier circumstances, and during the later years of his life he had found occupation in selling books new and old, while at Ambler, Pa., and at Newburgh, N. Y.

He died of heart disease, at Newburgh, July 23, 1909, in the seventy-third year of his age. He was never married.

from the Yale Obituary Record.

From the guide to the Darrach family papers, 1810-1908, (Manuscripts and Archives)