Ed Darnell, a prominent farmer and stockman, living five miles southwest of Bartlesville, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, August 19, 1874, but was only three years of age when taken to southern Kansas by his parents, L. J. and Rachel (Clark) Darnell, the family residing in that state for a period of fifteen years. On the 22d of April, 1889, they went to old Oklahoma, settling in Payne County, eleven miles west of Stillwater. The father became the first county recorder of Payne County and was appointed to the office by the first governor of the state. This position he continued to fill for two terms in a most creditable and satisfactory manner and then returned to his farm. He died June 5, 1900. His wife passed away in January, 1918, at Lawrence, Kansas. Both were laid to rest in the cemetery at Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Ed Darnell started out in the business world as a cow-puncher on the old Cherokee Strip, when he was seventeen years of age. Throughout the intervening period he has been connected with agricultural pursuits and stock raising. He is now successfully engaged in the cattle business in Osage county, where he has leased ten thousand acres of land for the purpose of raising his cattle thereon. His home, however, is in Washington County, where he has sixty acres of rich and productive land five miles southwest of Bartlesville and on this stands a beautiful residence in the midst of a fine forest. The home was erected at a cost of seventeen thousand dollars and is thoroughly modern throughout with a splendid water and electric light system. Mr. Darnell has been very successful in his stock raising interests and, until a recent date had eight hundred head of cattle, but in the summer of 1921 sold five hundred head.
On the 13th of April, 1898, Mr. Darnell was united in marriage to Miss Mary Gilliland at Cedarville, Kansas, and they have become the parents of eleven children : Charles E., twenty-six years of age; Woodley, deceased; Nellie Pearl; Robert Raymond, aged nineteen; L. J., a youth of sixteen; Thelma May; Ruby Rachel; Lillie Maude; Ida Ethel; Naomi Marcine; and Elizabeth Loraine. All of the children remain at home except Charles E., who married Marie McClain, and they have one child, Earl.
All members of the family like the farm with its privileges of outdoor life and the household is a very happy one. Mr. Darnell and his family are members of the Christian church at Bartlesville and he takes a most active and helpful interest in both church and school work.