Hi @jfreak53
Tried and true way to get older apple products into DFU/Recovery mode is to plug the device into a computer, hold the power button and select shut down the device, then immediately hold the home button (while it shuts down and starts back up) for ~15 seconds until it boots up into recovery mode.
In my experience, this will not remove the iCloud account signed into the device but older versions of iOS might be different.