by Jo Ann Hopper
Family tradition has long held that the Daniel, Watkins, Cherry, and Fitzhugh families came to Hood County, Texas in 1867. But in fact the Hood County 1870 Census does not support this. The Robert C. Daniel family is recorded in Stewart County, Tennessee in 1870. By the 1880 census the Daniel family is in Hood County, Texas. Perhaps they came for a visit earlier.
William Buchanan Daniel was born October 15, 1857 in Dover, Stewart County Tennessee, to Robert C. and Martha J. Dawson Daniel. Among his brothers and sisters are Carolyn Adelia Daniel, born February 20, 1856; married David Edward Watkins and lived in Tolar; Robert Randolph, born March 14, 1864; Effie Daniel, born 1868, and George E. Daniel, born 1872.
William’s maternal grandfather, Elijah Dawson, son of Solomon and Rachel Merony Dawson, was a long-time resident of Stewart County, having come with his family in 1815 from Georgia where the family had lived for a short time. He married May or Mary about 1825, in Stewart County, Tennessee. William’s paternal grandparents were David and Mary Cherry Daniel of Stewart County, Tennessee. David Daniel was born in 1783 in Martin County, North Carolina where Daniels had lived since the 1600’s.
After coming to Hood County, William worked for a while with his brother-in-law, David Edward Watkins, operating a grocery or general store in Tolar. Then he took charge of Robert C. Daniel’s grocery store in Granbury. William married Lucinda E. Allen, born 1863. Their children included Otis Allen Daniel, born September 5, 1886; Arthur Ogden Daniel, born April 24, 1891; and Bessie Daniel, born August 13, 1893; she married John H. Peavy. After Lucinda died in 1922, William married Ida L. Gordon.
| William Buchanan Daniel was buried in the Granbury Cemetery in Hood County, Texas. |
Note: For more information about William B. Daniel’s ancestors, see the Robert Clifton Watkins biographical web page that recounts the Daniel and Dawson lines.