Joseph Darlinton

Who was Joseph Darlinton?

Joseph Darlinton was an American politician in the U.S. state of Ohio and in the Northwest Territory prior to Ohio statehood. Darlinton represented Adams County as a member of the Northwest Territory House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate. Darlinton also served as a delegate to the convention that drafted the first state constitution for Ohio.

Joseph Darlinton was born July 19, 1765 near Winchester, Virginia, on the 400 acre plantation of his father, Meredith Darlinton. As a young man, he traveled extensively, and spent extravagantly. On March 18, 1790, he married the rich heiress Sarah Wilson of Romney, Virginia, who had also been courted by Albert Gallatin. They lived in Romney for a few months, until moving to a farm she owned in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. There, two sons were born, the couple joined the Presbyterian Church, and Darlinton was elected County Commissioner.

Life in Pennsylvania depressed them, so they took a boat down the Ohio River to Limestone, Kentucky, landing there November 14, 1794. He became a ferryman, but tired of that, and brought land across the river in the Northwest Territory, and moved there in the spring of 1797.