Durbin History part 2

Continued from Durbin1 page:
     We enjoy visiting places in the country named after a Durbin:  Durbin, West Virginia named 
after the cashier of the bank in Morgantown WVA (Charles Durbin whose descendent Charles IV 
lives close to me in Maryland) which loaned the funds to establish the city; Durbin, 
Indiana where the city limit signs are separated only by two grain silos and the township 
school; and two places in Ohio named Durbin on some maps. One Durbin, Ohio is apparently 
buried under a new highway outside of Springfield.
     The other is a road intersection outside Celina, Ohio near which is held the annual “Durbin 
Community Bean Bake”. Some of the local residents were surprised that the place ever had a post 
office. One asserted to me that if it ever were a town it needed only one city limit sign with 
“Entering” on one side and “Leaving” on the other. I recently learned of the Durbin United 
Methodist Church a few miles southeast of Jacksonville, Illinois. My cousin in St. Louis, Ross 
Durbin, recently sent me a flyer from a newspaper in Alabama advertising “Marshall Durbin 
Fresh Chicken”.We are amused by inquiries from researchers determined to prove that we are 
descended from Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, andItalian royalty. While researching in England we 
learned that in the late 18th/early 19th Century, one of us Durbins was the rector of the 
University of Bristol, and another was a famous “ghostbuster” who is referred to in the 
literature and wrote a respected book on the technique. We also found Durbins who were hauled 
into court during the reign of Elizabeth I. Other researchers have sent me numerous records 
of historic Durbins in England, the vast majority of whom were located in the Somerset/Gloucester 
area, and several of whom migrated to Wisconsin, Canada, Minnesota, etc. as late as the mid-1800s.
     We are proud that a Durbin in the Samuel line was a horse-back missionary in southern 
Illinois. Father Elisha Durbin, a son of John J. Durbin and a great, great uncle of mine, 
was responsible for founding many towns in that area. A distant cousin of his (going back to the 
early Baltimore Durbin clan—see 
below) was a Methodist chaplain of the United States Senate (Rev. John Price Durbin) who 
was noted as an educator and a dedicated missionary/organizer in India. Lloyd Durbin was a member 
of the Bob Hope/Lloyd Durbin comedy act that got Bob Hope started on his entertainment career.
  (Lloyd Durbin died at an early age.) We are closely related to Cornelia Otis Skinner, the 
noted author. A Pius Durbin owned most of Orange County, California where he had a hog 
farm that fed on the Los Angeles garbage. He was also a member of the Buffalo Bill traveling 
show. I have a picture of him in his buckskins. If only he could have looked into the future, 
he would have held on to his Orange County holdings which would have made the Durbins among 
the richest families in the country!Another Durbin replaced Gene Autry when he left Chicago 
radio to take up his career in Hollywood. A Durbin was governor of Indiana in 1900. There is 
apparently a very distant connection with Deanna Durbin who at this writing resides in France. 
A mathematician named Durbin designed a tennis racket called “The Durbin” with a 
scientifically-determined “sweet spot”. Tennis buffs have told me it was very good in its day.
   There is also a Durbin (apparently not of the Samuel line but of a later immigration) who 
was a highly regarded and respected Texas Marshal. Books and pamphlets have been written 
on him. He apparently was of the “one riot, one Texas marshal” caliber.And The Durbin in 
Rushville, Ind. was a hotel famous for its “home-cooked” meals. Marriott bought the hotel, 
published a recipe book of its cuisine, and eventually closed it down. It is now a designated 
historic building which has been converted into condominiums and boutiques. The former Durbin 
owners are part of the Marriott Indianapolis staff, while some of them have reportedly opened 
another motel/hotel in southern Indiana. James Durbin was vice president of Marriott 
International.One of the early Durbin women (Avarilla) from the well-to-do Baltimore branch 
married a Revolutionary War hero named Casper, moved to Pennsylvania to claim their 
war service bonus reward of ten thousand acres, and there apparently met up with Joseph 
Smith, founder of Mormon Church. She is reportedly responsible for many of the Samuel (and 
other Maryland) Durbin family being baptized after death into the Mormon Church.Not to slight 
another faith in the Durbin line, Robert Strawbridge, a disciple of John Wesley, the founder of 
Methodism,came to this country on the same boat as Margaret Bruce who married William Durbin 
(1749 - 1820), a grandson of Samuel and Ann. Margaret had been converted to Methodism during 
the trip by Strawbridge, convinced William and his immediate family to convert, and 
together with Strawbridge and about ten other families in the Westminster, Maryland area 
founded circa 1766 what is purported to be the first Methodist community in the country, 
or at least on this part of the Eastern seaboard. The log church still stands. Several of 
William’s descendants became Methodist missionaries in Maryland/Pennsylvania, one 
of whose deathbed visions are recorded. The house of William Durbin also is still standing 
and is known as the Durbin House in Westminster, formerly the club house for the local golf 
club but now an administrative building. One source maintains that William, the Methodist 
convert, was disowned by his father and siblings for leaving the Catholic Church. I have 
personally and through research encountered many, many Methodist Durbins, among them several 
ministers, indicating that the Methodist persuasion continued (and continues) to find a 
fertile field in the Durbin family.To drive through Maryland from Baltimore on Interstate 
70 and then on Interstate 68 (formerly Routes 40 and 48) gives one an appreciation for 
the beautiful and rugged land the Durbins and the other families of that time set out to tame. 
Driving south on Interstate 95 or Interstate 81 shows one the long trek they had to make to 
end up in Kentucky. Of course, several branches of the Durbins also went down the Monongahela 
and Ohio rivers to make their way to Kentucky, while many continued west overland to 
Ohio and Indiana. In Sangamon and Christian counties in central Illinois the various branches 
of Durbins which headed south and west after the Revolutionary War started merging. The 
records show that the Durbins were a restless group, continuing west from Illinois and 
Kentucky into Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and as part of the migration along 
the Oregon Trail.Please do not get the impression that Lorraine and I are into the family tree 
search in a big way. We are not; but we have an intense interest in the history of the Durbin 
Family. We have a Logsdon record provided by the British government to a constituent 
of then Senator Mike Mansfield, which goes beyond  William Logsdon, the 1674 Immigrant, 
to his great grandfather in Bedfordshire, England, John Logsdon (1580 -  ), establishing an 
unbroken line of 14 generations to our grandchildren. We have also extended my great 
grandmother, Teresa Burtle, wife of Pius Anselm Durbin, through her mother, Monica Gatton 
to her ggggg grandfather, Thomas Gatton in England in 1641.With that we are satisfied—more 
than satisfied – but still curious. We have amassed a treasure trove of information on the 
Durbins (of which there must have been about four significant immigrations along the 
Eastern, Southeastern, and Southern shores.) Little by little we pull information together 
which enhances our perspectives on our Durbin ancestors. We are now collecting bits of 
information on the other families into which the Durbins married. These are our 
great grandparents and beyond, viz. the Hills, the Gauls, the Burtles, the Gattons, the 
Cummings and the Leahys and others. I might add that access to the various genealogy resources 
available through the Internet has been very rewarding. Regarding our historic 
family in the context of the times, the economy, the politics, the Indian raids, etc., 
we descendants can be justifiably proud of our forebears who usually played a more or 
less distinguished role in their community, if only to warn neighbors of Indian raids 
near Frederick, Maryland.
     Once in a while we come across some interesting items about the Durbins which give us a 
greater and deeper appreciation of and pride in the hardiness (and occasional fool-hardiness) 
of some of our forebears. The picture of them risking everything to emigrate to America and 
then pushing the frontier west and south is a humbling vista to those of us striving to keep 
their efforts and sacrifices alive and recognized as The Durbin Family Tradition.

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