DANIELS, James T.

DANIELS, MCDERMOTT, REDDEN, ROONEY, HENDRICKS, ENGLETT, MCMILLEN, DAILEY, KURTZ, MCGUIRE

Posted By: Colette Miles (email)
Date: 7/18/2004 at 10:58:08

James T. Daniels
1855 - 1935

We are agian called to mourn the passing of one of our parishioners. James T. Daniels of 5620 Clinton Ave., died on February 26.
The story of Mr. Daniels' life is a moving one. He was of that pioneer band who faced the hardships and oftentimes the terrors of the Western frontier.
Born of Hanorah Kelly and Sullivan Daniels at Picatonica, Winnebago County, Illinois, April 25, 1855, his first years were spent, if not in the neighborhood, at least in the atmosphere created by Abraham Lincoln. Living in Illinois until 1864, he undoubtedly was familiar with the stirring events attending the Lincoln-Doughlas debates.
In the fall of 1864, he moved with his parents to Lehigh, Webster county,Iowa. A covered wagon, drawn by an ox team took them by a freshly broken trail to the Mississippi river, which was crossed in a tugboat.
Until the spring of 1869, he lived in Webster County, with his parents, when they again took up the trail. using the only means of transportation known to the times, namely the covered wagon. Not knowing exactly the objective of their journey, they penetrated to a wilder frontier than they had heretofore encountered. They staked a clain on the bak of Mill Creek in Cherokee County, Iowa and took up their residence in a dugout. There the family lived for nearly a year. The hardships were dreadful: dangers to life and propery were always. Those who forced their way into the West in those days. found few obstacles set up by their fellow men. Their difficulties were largely with nature itself. The winters were frightful. Blizzards often kept people indoors for weeks at a time. Starvation threatened always, in such circumstances. Not only by blizzards were the people harrassed; wild animals scarcely left the settlements: animals now almost extinct in these parts then roamed at large; an ever present menace.
While living in their dugout in this strange new world. the men of the Daniels family cleared the land and built a log house. In this house they lived until 1883, oftentimes without food: much of the time living on bread made from the corn raised on their own land.
James Daniels was a real pioneer. He broke the prairie sod; helped fight the raging fires; lived through the grasshopper scourge; felled and hewed the timbers for rail fences. In a word he saw Cherokee County develop from a wild unbroken prairie into one of the most fertile and productive counties in the state of Iowa.
In 1881 he was united in marriage to Elizabeth McDermott. To this union were born seven children, four of whom survive. Mrs. Daniels died on November 19, 1896.
In 1883 he took a squatter claim in O'Brien County, Iowa. The untilled undeveloped soil became, under Mr. Daniels' fine management and industry, one of the finest farms in that county. It was while living here in O'Brien County that Mr. Daniels was converted and became a member of the Catholic Church.
On April 27, 1898, he was united in marriage to Martha Redden. God blessed this union with thirteen children, eleven surviving. He lived in Nobles County, Minnesota, from 1904 until 1915. and in Pope County, Minnesota from 1915 to 1929, when the family moved to Minneapolis, becoming members of teh Annunciation parish in November 1933.
The surviving children are Mark W. and James C. of San Francisco California; **** W.H. Rooney, Sheldon, Iowa, Mrs. G. Hendricks, Washington Springs, S. Dakota; H.P. Englett, Miss Collette Daniels, Atlanta, Georgia; Miss Clotilda, Mrs. R. McMillen, Loras V., Sylvester S., Gervase P., Cosmas D., John R., Michael J., Cyril C., all of Minneapolis. One brother, S.S.Daniels, Larabee, Iowa, and two sisters, Mrs. W.O.Dailey, Cherokee, Iowa, and Mrs. Lucy Kurtz, Marysville, Washington, also survive.
Mr. Daniels was an exemplary Catholic, receiving the Sacraments frequently durning his prolongd illness, and dying in the odor of sanctity.
His funeral was held at 9 o'clock, February 29th. Ther very large attendance at his funeral bespoke for him the high regard of many relatives and friends. May he rest in peace.
The Requiem High Mass was celebrated by Father McGuire, who also said the prayers at St. Mary's cemetery.