from The History of Hendricks County (Indianapolis: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1914)--pages 792-793
Hard and laborious effort was the lot of John Durham during his youth and early manhood, since he was born at a time when this county was a primeval wilderness. His fidelity to duty has won for him the respect and confidence of those with whom he has been thrown in contact, and by patient continuance in good service he has gradually risen from an humble station in life to his present high standing among the leading men of Hendricks County.
John Durham was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, on May 3, 1838, and is the son of John and Mary M. (Fields) Durham, both of whom were born and reared in Boyle County, Kentucky, and were married there before coming to this state. The father of John Durham, Sr., and grandfather of the one of whom this chronicle speaks, was also called John. The grandfather was born in Virginia and came to the state of Kentucky at the age of nine with his parents and lived in a fort at Harrodsburg for a year or so because of the Indian troubles. Mary M. Fields was descended from Irish ancestry, her grandfather coming from Ireland to this country in an early day. John and Mary Durham came from Kentucky to Montgomery County, Indiana, in 1835, locating near Waveland. The grandfather of John Durham came also and entered a large amount of government land and gve a farm to each one of his children, on which to start in life.
John Durham grew up in this new environment and lived at home until his marriage, which occurred on December 22, 1865, to Lee A. Tucker, a native of this county and the daughter of Lee and Miranda (Durham) Tucker. His wife is a grandmother of Nathan and David Tucker, whose history may be found elsewhere in this volume. Miranda Durham was born in Boyle County, Kentucky, the daughter of Thomas Durham, her father being a distant relative of John Durham.
After Mr. Durham's marriage, in 1865, he came to Eel River Township, this county, and began farming about half-way between Jamestown and North Salem, where he remained from December, 1865, until the fall of 1913, a period of forty-eight years. During his long career as a farmer he has seen many ups and downs and has encountered obstacles of all kings, and yet has maintained his cheerful disposition through it all. Success has crowned his efforts and today he is the owner of five hundred and twenty acres of fine farming land in this township. However, recently he has given away all of this land but one hundred and eighty acres, dividing it among his children.
Mr. and Mrs. Durham were the parents of seven children: Charles Omer, physician and now coroner of Marion County, Indiana, who married Mary Maley, and has one daughter, Frances; Frank C., deceased, who was a lawyer in Indianapolis for a time and later in Chicago, and died in the latter city in 1909; John L., who is on the old home farm north of North Salem, is married to Adeline Clark and they have two children, Glenn and Walter; Clarence S. in in Missouri; Harry C. and Thomas G. both live at North Salem and are engaged in farming, while Mary F., is at home with her father. The mother of these children died in 1911.
Mr. Durham has been a life-long Democrat and has always taken an intelligent interest in public affairs. He has twice been elected as trustee of Eel River Township, his last term ending in 1883. He has always kept in touch with the times and the trend of current thought, and has always discharged the duties of citizenship in the intelligent manner becoming the level-headed American citizen of today. He has taken a deep interest in whatever makes for the material advancement of the community and endorses all worthy enterprises whereby his fellow men will be benefited and made better.