Source: History of Boone County, Indiana, by Hon. L.M. Crist, 1914.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON DARNELL In William Jefferson Darnell, widely-known
attorney of Jamestown, Boone county, we find evidence of a peculiar characteristic that
always makes for advancement--persistency, coupled with fortitude and lofty traits, and as
a result of such a life Mr. Darnell has long enjoyed prestige as one of the representative
professional men in a community noted for the high order of its talents.

He was born on March 5, 1847, in Hendricks county, Indiana. He is a son of Capt.
William H. and Mathilda (Swain) Darnell, both natives of Kentucky. The father was a
Baptist minister, and he came to Indiana in 1832, locating in Hendricks county, on
timbered land north of Danville, clearing his three hundred and twenty acres and
developing a good farm, but all the while continued preaching. In 1864 he came to Boone
county, after having spent five years in Montgomery county. He was a man of industry
and had accumulated over seven hundred acres in Hendricks county, which he later sold
and invested in one hundred and sixty acres in Montgomery county, selling that when he
moved to Boone county and invested in eighty acres in Jackson township where he lived
until 1869 when he moved to Jamestown, remaining here until his wife's death in 1876,
when he returned to Montgomery county, and there married a Mrs. Dewey, who lived but
a short time, and after her death he married Susan Robinson, and they spent the rest of
their lives in Montgomery county, dying in 1892. He owned considerable in
Crawfordsville, Jamestown and elsewhere. By his first marriage eleven children were
born, all growing to maturity, William J., of this sketch being the seventh in order of birth;
James is farming in Jackson township, this county; Charles H. is also farming in this
county; Mrs. Ida Ashley is the wife of John H. Ashley and they reside in Jamestown;
Nathan T., a contractor and builder, lives in Louisville, Kentucky; Harriett lives in
Indianapolis and is the widow of Elwood James; Mrs. Louisa M. Youel died leaving three
children, Ernest, Daisy and Emma, who married Charles W. Fried; Milton S. is farming in
Putnam county; Henry is a merchant in Montgomery county; Mrs. Georgia Shirk,
deceased, lived in Crawfordsville and left three children, Clara, Ora and Edward; Charles
H. lives in Jamestown and is a stock dealer and farmer.

William J. Darnell, of this sketch, received his early education in the common schools and
at Wesley Chapel in Montgomery county. He remained at home until he was twenty-two
years of age, when he married Kate George, of Indianapolis, May 18, 1870. She is a
daughter of James and Sarah (Shields) George. Mr. George was a merchant in
Indianapolis, where his death occurred during the Civil war. The mother's death occurred
at the home of our subject in Jamestown where she had made her home after he married
her daughter. In 1870 Mr. Darnell opened a shoe store in Jamestown which he managed
five years, during which time he was reading law with Peterson & Lockhart, a prominent
law firm of Jamestown. He was admitted to the bar in 1875 and has practiced law ever
since in this city with the exception of 1895-6 when he resided in Lebanon, in partnership
with Noah Loffrin, now deceased. He has been very successful as an attorney, and has
won an especially wide reputation as a criminal lawyer, and has enjoyed a place in the front
ranks of his professional brethren for more than thirty-five years in Boone county, during
which he has kept fully abreast of the times, remaining a close student. He was associated
with Samuel M. Ralston, present governor of Indiana, in the famous William Miller case,
being retained by the defense, winning the case and establishing a precedent which set
aside a state statute by appeal to the supreme court. Mr. Darnell has been admitted to the
bar in seven states, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky and Alabama.
He has traveled extensively, including a trip to Mexico in 1912-13, and was captured by
the "red flaggers," a band of rebels, but was finally released and returned to Jaurez.
Formerly he was an active Republican, but since the organization of the Progressive party
he has been loyal in his support of it. He has long been active and influential in local
public affairs, and in 1895-6 was deputy prosecuting attorney of Boone county.
Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Luther Lodge No.
227, also the Encampment at Jamestown. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
church at Jamestown.

To Mr. and Mrs. Darnell the following children have been born, namely: Oscar, born
1871, died in 1884; Florence, born in 1873, married J.F. Hall, formerly a business man of
Jamestown, now of Los Angeles, California, and they have four children, Richard, Ina,
John and Margaret; George, born in 1883 is an attorney, publisher and musician, editor of
the Jamestown Press; he married Elsie Heath, of Boone county; he is also practicing law
with his father, under the firm name of Darnell & Darnell; Wilbur F. was born in 1887 and
is a druggist at Bargersville, Indiana; he married Blanche Jackson, a native of Boone
county, and they have one child, George. Kate, the youngest of our subject's children was
born September 26, 1890 and was married May 18, 1910 to Gene Camplin. She was a
graduate of the North Salem high school and attended the Central Normal College at
Danville, Indiana, and taught school in Hendricks county prior to her marriage. She has
one child, Darnell, who is one year old.

The father of our subject was a captain during the Mexican war. He assisted in raising a
regiment in 1848 in Hendricks county, and was appointed captain, however the regiment
was not called on for active service, but was enlisted and given proper credit, was drilled
and ready for the front.

ASHLEY CAMPLIN DARNELL DEWEY FRIED GEORGE HALL HEATH
JACKSON JAMES LOCKHART LOFFRIN MILLER PETERSON RALSTON
ROBINSON SHIELDS SHIRK SWAIN YOUEL

Submitted by Amy K Davis