John Herndon Daniel (1826 – 1911)
John Herndon Daniel was a pioneer farmer and stock raiser born in Garrard County, Kentucky on February 18, 1826, the second of twelve children of Edmond and Frances Herndon Daniel. The family was of Scots-Irish descent and his grandfather Edmond Daniel fought in the Revolutionary War and succumbed to injuries sustained at the Battle of Brandywine.
John H. Daniel spent his childhood in Monroe County, Missouri on the family farm and in 1845 (at 19) he walked from Missouri to the village Cedar Springs, Texas alongside a team of oxen. The following Spring he assisted Warren Angus Ferris survey unsettled territory near Birdville in today’s Tarrant County. That summer he helped harvest the first crop of wheat ever planted in the brand-new Dallas County and assisted Ferris again in surveying unsettled Choctaw territory in today’s Grayson County (where wild strawberries grew in abundance). That autumn, he enlisted in the Mexican War – serving in Infantry Company K under Captain Stephen Kinsey until Kinsey’s October 1, 1847 resignation. Numerous Dallas-area men served in Company K along the Rio Grande and 1 st Lieutenant Preston Witt succeeded Kinsey as Captain on October 23, 1847.
Following the war in 1848, John Daniel returned to Missouri and spent the summer with his parents before returning to Dallas County late that Fall. Struck by gold fever, in July 1849 Daniel joined eighty other men up in Grayson County on a three-month gold hunting expedition along the Red River and the Pease and Wichita Rivers. Although the group didn’t find gold, they found sizable deposits of copper ore.
On December 6th 1849 in Dallas County, John married Rebecca Ray whose parents Robert and Mary Denton Ray came from Illinois in 1847 and settled along White Rock Creek. The following Spring, the newlyweds acquired 190 acres along the west side of White Rock Creek north of the old Central National Highway (today’s Garland Road), five miles northeast of the courthouse. Daniel camped on this same site after first arriving in Texas in 1845.
In addition to farming, Daniel served as a Constable for the nearby Fisher township and also as a trustee for the local school. He supported the People’s Party, was an active member of Dallas’ Tannehill Lodge, No. 52, A.F. & A. M. and was also active in Dallas’ Farmers’ Alliance. In 1863, he enlisted in Stratton’s Company, Stone’s Regiment, of Ross’ Texas Brigade and participated in multiple Civil War skirmishes before being discharged in Louisiana after twelve months’ service.
On December 6th 1909, John and Rebecca Daniel celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at their 1850 homestead surrounded by seven children and nine grandchildren. The couple raised thirteen children – nine of whom survived into adulthood. A newspaper article highlighted John H. Daniel’s contributions to early Dallas County adding that by 1909 they had 35 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren. Like all landowners along White Rock Creek, the Daniels had to sell acreage to the City of Dallas for the 1911 creation of White Rock Lake and in May 1910 received $1,905.00 for their easternmost 22.45 acres.
John H. Daniel passed away on March 27, 1911 and was laid to rest in Cox Cemetery, just north of the family farm. Rebecca Ray Daniel passed away eleven months later on February 27, 1912 and was laid to rest beside John. The Daniel farm was later sold and developed into the Monticello housing development that opened in 1925. Monticello is located at today’s West Lawther Drive and Lakewood Boulevard stretching west from that intersection.
