Time for my next installment for the year and this time it
is from my Daddy’s side of the family. The
man I will be talking about this time is from my Papaw, Aubrey David Beard’s
side of the family and he was Aubrey’s great-grandfather and my third
great-grandfather. This man’s name was Drury
Daniel and he was born in about 1809 in Rowan County, North Carolina son of
Peter Daniel and Sarah Lofton. I know he
had a brother named John T. Daniel who was born in about 1819 and died sometime
after 1850, and a sister named Susannah Daniel Clark who was born in about 1807
and died before 1880 in Arkansas, but other than these two sibling, I do not
know the names of any others. I do know
there may have been at least one other brother and three other sisters though. Drury’s parents are on the 1830 census in
Fayette County, Tennessee and they have 2 males and 3 females all under the age
of 20, but unfortunately I do not know who one of these males and the three
females were, but more than likely they were Drury’s brother and sisters.
Drury’s parents were married March 28, 1803 in Rowan County,
North Carolina and sometime after 1820 and before 1830, they had moved to
Tennessee and were living in Fayette County.
The Daniel family were all farmers for the most part and so was Drury. Back then you would have to clear the land,
watch out for Indians and hope your crops did well or you would starve to death. My grandfather, Drury Daniel married for the
first time in Tennessee in about 1827 to Sarah Gaines when he was 18 and she
was 17 years old. Sarah may have been
the daughter of Joseph V. Gaines and a mother with a possible last name of
Graves who were from Orange County, North Carolina but who ended up in Jackson
County, Tennessee. Drury and Sarah
became the parents of at least seven children before Sarah died in about 1844
in Bedford County, Tennessee.
Drury Daniel married second to Catharine Margaret Gaines in
about 1846 in Tennessee and who I believe was possibly a younger sister to
Sarah Gaines, Drury’s first wife.
Catharine became my third great-grandmother and Drury and Catharine
became the parents of at least eight children.
Catharine died sometime after March 1861 and before June of 1865 probably
in Crittenden County, Kentucky. I wish I
could find the actual marriage dates for Drury to Sarah and to Catharine, so I
could know for certain whose children are whose. Uncle Bud’s death certificate says his mother
was Sarah Gaines not Catharine and the other death certificates for some of the
other children of Catharine state the parents’ names are unknown so that
doesn’t help me either.
The eight children of Drury and Catharine were: Dr.
Drury Marion Daniel 1847-1935, Francis James ‘Bud’ Daniel 1849-1928, Thomas
Jefferson Daniel 1852-1902, Collin Graves Daniel 1855-1882 (my direct line),
Newton W. Daniel 1856-1938, William Gaines Daniel 1857-after 1870, Melton H.
Daniel 1859-1869 and Sarah Catherine
Susannah Nancy Emily Daniel Chadwick 1861-1942 (Can you believe that long name? By the way, her husband was a nephew to her
two older half-sisters, husbands.).
Again, I don’t have many pictures for this part of my family, but I do
have this one of Uncle Bud.
Drury next married two more times and he apparently never
had any children with either one of these ladies and their names were: Mrs.
Susan Varnoy Johnson on June 22, 1865 in Crittenden County, Kentucky and then Mrs.
Nancy C. Bates Davis Rushing on October 4, 1867 in Crittenden County, Kentucky. I believe Susan probably died before October
1867, but Nancy and Drury must have been divorced, because she isn’t living
with Drury in 1870, she is living with one of her Rushing step-sons and she
doesn’t die until after 1880.
For the final time, Drury Daniel gets married again in
Arkansas, possibly Izard County since that is where he was living in 1880. This time he marries Julia Ann Taylor in
about 1875. Julia had, had a daughter
out of wedlock named Melinda C. Taylor Bone Turner 1872-1968, who Drury raised. Drury and Julia had at least three children
together before Drury passed away. These
three children were: Stephen Grant Daniel 1876-1943, Ulecia Daniel 1879-before
1882 and Charlie Daniel 1881-???? (I know he lived to adulthood, and lived in Newport,
Arkansas but I haven’t found his death date yet.). Julia remarried on July 22, 1890 in Izard
County, Arkansas to Joseph Moneyham who was 23 years older than her, Drury Daniel
had been 37 years older than Julia.
Drury had a lot of children, at least eighteen, that I know
of for certain, between three different wives, Sarah, Catharine and Julia, and
he helped raise at least one step-child.
No wonder he never had any money and worked from dawn to dusk farming,
he had to feed a lot of mouths, can you even imagine?
I didn’t know when Drury Daniel died for certain or where
until I received the following information, from Betty McCollum on the Izard
County Board on the internet: “Vickie, when I began reading your comments about
Drury Daniel, I kept thinking that sounded familiar. So, I checked my records and in Down Memory
Lane #2, Mrs. Clara Twilley Tate states: "Elsie Coleman, Robbie Condrey's
mother, I'm not sure if the next one was born between Elsie and my brother Alfred
or not, but they had a baby that died and it's buried over there in the field
on the Warnett place. This was just
recently sold and it had been in the family since it was patented and the
patent was signed by President Buchanan.
There's three graves over there.
An old man, Uncle Dewey Daniels is buried back there, and his baby, and
then my little brother was buried back there." I believe the man she refers to as Dewey
Daniel, was probably your Drury Daniel.
Also in Carroll Hayden's Cemetery Record Book for Izard County, Arkansas
he lists Dewey Daniels (unmarked), and Baby Daniels (child of Dewey and Julia
Daniels) unmarked. Carroll got this
information from Mrs. Twilley's statement.”
So I now know where Drury was buried as well as his and Julia’s little
girl, Ulecia Daniel, just wish I knew the dates for certain. I know Drury died after the 1880 census was
taken in June that year and before Julia gets remarried in July of 1890.
Drury started off in North Carolina, moved to
Tennessee crisscrossing that state as a young man, then on to Crittenden
County, Kentucky and Izard County, Arkansas going back and forth between these
last two states a few times, before passing away in Izard County,
Arkansas. We tend to think that people
would not have done that kind of thing back in those days because of so many
different reasons, but it happened so much and why some of these people did it
we will probably never know. As my Papaw
Fraley use to say, “Some people just have itchy feet”.
Great story!
ReplyDeleteKeep the history lessons coming. I enjoy each and everyone you have posted. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWow ----18 children and married so many times. How interesting the way he traveled thru the states. The pictures makes me sad tho. The women are so worn out looking. Those were hard times back in those days. When they were just in their 30s, they looked so old. Sad.
ReplyDeleteVicki...Cousin Gina here! Do you have any information of where the name Collins came from in our line...Collins Graves Daniel?
ReplyDeleteHi Gina nice to hear from you. Unfortunately I have never heard where the name of Collin/Colin/Collins came from. If I ever do I will be sure and let you know.
DeleteMartha Ada Daniels Chadwick died in Chico, Wise County, Texas in 1908. Her husband, William King Chadwick died in 1884 in Izard County, Arkansas and is apparently buried in an unmarked grave. Martha Ada suffered from what was probably Dementia and came to Chico to be taken care of her daughters and youngest son, James (Uncle Jim) Chadwick. She and Jim, her grandson, John Elbert Herriott (my grandfather) and some of the Tabors are all buried in our family plot in the Chico Cemetery, it is where I will reside one day.
DeleteBill Elbert Steward
Henrietta, Texas
Bill,
DeleteNice to meet you. Martha Ada was my 2nd great-grandaunt.