on the 29th of January, that it is now asserted that Messrs. J. H. Harris and D. H. Starbuck have recanted and are for Grant. The pressure may become so great that they will properly represent the sentiment of the party at Chicago, but their action cannot be foretold." It was also reported at this time that a new appointment deal had been struck with Starbuck in the event of a presidential win for Sherman. Gen. Rufus Barringer was to have been given the appointment of US Attorney for the Western District, though the choice to remove Lusk from his post had not yet been definitively decided, as Lusk had recently declared support for Sherman. Even so, the likelihood of Barringer's appointment was still considered to be "probable", as Lusk had "been compelled in the execution of his office to make himself very unpopular, and [had] no influence in his district." Now, "Starbuck stipulated that if Sherman succeeded, he [Starbuck] should succeed Dr. W. H. Wheeler as the Collector of the Fifth District." This decision was made because of Wheeler's allegiance to Grant. John Sherman did not become president, nor did he win his party's nomination. Starbuck was never appointed as District 5 Collector. In the years following Starbuck's fade from political life, he returned to his law practice in Forsyth. He was mentioned by name in the biography of John Cameron Buxton. In it, it is said that by the time of Buxton's arrival in Winston around 1875, "Watson and [William B.] Glenn" — "[with] Colonel Joseph Masten, and Judges [Thomas] J. Wilson and D. H. Starbuck had the entire [law] practice of Forsythe County." It goes on to say that Masten, Wilson, and Starbuck soon there after "retired on account of age", creating a void in the city's law practice which Buxton was able to, in part, help fill. Personal life 1840–1848: Young adulthood When Starbuck was about 21, all of his siblings were counted in the household of their father in Guilford County in 1840. Starbuck's mother died on July 17 of that year at the age of 50. She was buried in the Dover Friends Meeting Church Cemetery in Colfax, where the family attended meetings. Uriel, Starbuck's oldest brother, was disowned in the Dover Friends Meeting Church records on May 27, 1841. Following his brother's dismissal, Darius himself was disowned from the Quaker church on March