Smedley Darlington

Smedley Darlington (December 24, 1827 – June 24, 1899) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Smedley Darlington's house in West Chester

Biography

Darlington (second cousin of Congressmen Edward Darlington, Isaac Darlington, and William Darlington) was born in Pocopson Township, Pennsylvania. He attended the common schools and the Friends’ Central School in Philadelphia. He taught at Friends’ Central School for several years, and while teaching he made stenographic reports of sermons, lectures, and speeches for the morning dailies of Philadelphia. He established a school in Ercildoun, Pennsylvania, in 1851 which he operated for twelve years. He enlisted in the Civil War as a private and was subsequently promoted to the rank of captain in Beaumont’s independent company of cavalry, Pennsylvania Volunteer Emergency Militia. He was discharged with the company on September 24, 1862. He moved to West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1864. He conducted an extensive banking and brokerage business. He was a delegate to the Liberal Republican National Convention in 1872 and the 1896 Republican National Convention.

Darlington was elected as a Republican to the Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1890. He resumed the brokerage business and banking. He died in West Chester in 1899. Interment in Oakland Cemetery near West Chester.

He was the grandfather of Smedley Darlington Butler.

References

• Smedley Darlington at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2008-02-14