Follow
My source of infomation is from a book titled The Darsts of Virginia A Chronicle of Ten Generations in the Old Dominion. Written by H. Jackson Darst Published 1972.
The name was originally spelled Durst. Saga of the Darsts began in the canton of Glarus in the Swiss Alps near Zurich in or near a town named Linthal around 1200.
Around 1743 Abraham Derst came to America landing in Philadelphia September 1743. Stayed in Pennsylvania until the mid 1750's then moved to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Abraham's son Benjamin is the person who established the Darst name in Rockbridge County and his heirs went west to Montgomery and Pulaski Counties of Virginia.