The town of Darien hall is relatively new, built in 1997. The building is located at N2826 Foundry Road on the south side of the village.

The township itself, however, dates back to 1842 when it first was settled by Christopher Chesebro and Elijah Belding.

The bachelors arrived in the spring of 1837. Chesebro came from Otsego County, N.Y., and settled in Section 14. According to C. W. Butterfield’s “History of Walworth County,” he built a house and raised corn, beans and other vegetables.

Chesebro only lived for two more years, and his death was the first in the township. He was postmaster at the time of his death.

Belding settled in Section 11, just north of Chesebro. He broke ground but did not stay long. He soon moved to Delavan, and apparently moved regularly about the county. Butterfield indicates that in 1841, Belding settled in the town of Richmond in Section 29. In 1842, Belding was elected one of the township collectors. He married Mary James in what was the first wedding in the township.

The next settler in Darien Township was N.S. Comstock, who arrived on May 28, 1837, having come all the way from New York on horseback.

He built a log house and broke around 20 acres of land before heading back to New York to bring his wife and family to Section 27.

According to Butterfield, he was richer than many of the early settlers. In 1839, he is on the list for the first grand jury in the county. He was one of the commissioners of highways in 1844 and the next year he was town treasurer.

He again is listed as town treasurer in 1853.

Darien held its first township meeting on April 5, 1842, in the home of John Bruce.

Salmon Thomas was elected chairman and Joseph W. Seaver was elected clerk. They elected three assessors and two constables. They also established six school districts: Ridge Prairie, Blooming Prairie, Darien, Turtle Creek, Turtle Prairie and Spring Brook.

Originally, Walworth County was a part of Milwaukee County and then Racine County. The county was originally divided into five townships, which were Elkhorn in the northwest, Troy and Spring Prairie in the northeast, Geneva in the southeast and Delavan in the southwest.

In 1842, the townships were divided into their current configuration. Then the towns of Sugar Creek, LaFayette, Geneva and Delavan gave one section each to create the town of Elkhorn, which today is the city of Elkhorn.

The current Darien town chairman is Cecil Logterman. The supervisors are Jim Terpstra, Dale Wheelock, Matthew Smith and Dan Kilkenny.

The treasurer is Richard Logterman and the clerk is Marilyn Larson. The superintendent of public works is Bill Shimer.