My great-grandfather, Percy Henry Daniels, was a sea-faring sailor and ship captain born about 1881 in Olympia, Washington. He kept an address at South Street Seaport in New York City around the turn of the century, and ship records reveals he also kept an address in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Somehow, after all that traveling, he ended up in central New York where he married Vena Dykeman at the age of 48, and started his family. He died about eleven years later, on December 13, 1940 in Solon, Cortland County, at the age of 59.
I don't believe Percy's wife and daughter ever met anyone in Percy's family, because all of his family that I know of) remained on the west coast. We learned from his marriage license, that he was the son of William Daniels and Eliza Gale. With some research, I learned that William Daniels was born in Missouri between 1838 and 1840. His parents were Austin Daniels and Mary Ellen Wilkinson.
Austin and Mary Ellen were married January 7, 1836/37, in Morgan County, Missouri, based on the information provided on a later land claim application.
On April 1, 1843, Austin purchased 40 acres of land in what is now Florence, Morgan County, Missouri. It is on the border of Richland Township. On the deed, it was simply identified as Township 44 in Range 19. He owned the 40 acres on the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 23, as illustrated here:
You can have a look around the area on this interactive Google map:
It is highly unlikely that the original Daniels family home still stands, but Austin's son, William, was a Lumberman later in life and perhaps he learned the skill by helping his father clear this land as a boy.
I found no record of when he sold the land, but the family left Morgan County before 1850. Stay tuned as we continue on the journey, tracing the Daniels family trails.
See the Daniels page for more on this family.
For more reading on Holt County, click here.
Sources:
Early Oregonian State Archive entry for Daniel Austin Miles.
"New York, County Marriages, 1847-1848; 1908-1936," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-159371-262996-20?cc=1618491 : accessed 2 June 2015), Tompkins > Licenses, 1929-1931, no 954-1650 > image 8 of 789; county offices, New York.