DANIEL JAMES –
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Assembled by Cara Williams Michas
1. Mormon Pioneer Overland
Travel, 1847-1868, Church History Library and Archives, http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library.
James, Daniel
Birth Date: Unknown
Death Date: Unknown
Gender: Male
Age: 7
Company: Abraham O. Smoot Company (1852)
Sources:
"List of Persons Sent from Great Britain
by the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Co., in the Months of January and February
1852, by Franklin D. Richards Agent at Liverpool," Deseret
News, 21 Aug. 1852, 3.
Mormon Immigration Index.
2. Mormon Immigration Index, FamilySearch
CD, 2000.
Ship: Kennebec
Date of Departure: 10 Jan 1852 Port of Departure: Liverpool, England
LDS Immigrants: 333 Church Leader: John S. Higbee
Date of Arrival: 19 Mar 1852 Port
of Arrival: New Orleans, Louisiana
Source(s): BMR, Book #1044, pp. 11-29 (FHL #025,690); Customs #130 (FHL
#200,169)
3. Daniel James, by Mary James Stewart.
"Written by his daughter, Mary James Stewart
Dan James was born May 25, 1845, in Avergavenny
(Victoria) South Wales and came to this
country when he was seven years of age with his parents James D. James and Margaret Williams; two brothers, David and Franklin,
and one sister, Margaret. He crossed the plains to Utah
with the company of Smoot and Layton
in the year 1852. He was baptized in August 1853.
They had only been here a short time when Brigham
Young sent the James Family to Iron County, Utah, where Dan worked for three years
in the Iron works with his father. They them moved to San Bernadino,
California, in the year 1854,
where they remained [for] six years. Dan, with his brother David, worked on a
large cattle ranch for Miller and Lux Company. They
always had a desire to return to Utah
which they did in 1860. On their way back they came through Placerville, California,
to dig gold which they brought back with the[m]. They followed General Connor's
Army for protection from the Indians.
Dan helped to guard the rock wall in Tooele and he also played the snare
drum in the martial band. Later in life he played the accordian,
but he did all of they playing by ear. He never took any active part in
religious affairs.
He became a citizen of the United
States in the y[e]ar
1878, May 21. He was thirty-three years old. He was working at his father's
molasses mill, north west of Tooele
when he first met Love Peasnall, whom he later
married on 22 October 1877. His father gave him some land to build his home on;
it was located on James Street.
He lived there the rest of his life.
To him and his good wife were born a family of eleven children, the oldest
child having died at birth, the other children: five boys and five girls grew
to manhood and womanhood.
He burned charcoal at his home in two large coal kilns, which he built for
that purpose. He furnished charcoal for the Waterman Smelter at Stockton, Utah, for the
Germania Smelter on the Jordan River, and to the
boiler makers in Salt Lake City. He also helped
haul logs and stone for the South Ward Church. He did some freighting from Salt Lake City
to Tooele with Newton Dunyon.
The manufacturing of the charcoal was quite and extensive undertaking; it took
four or five men working in the kilns, then to fifteen men hauling the product
to the various plants and five wagons or more with a team of horses and a team
of mules to each wagon. A few of the men he had working for him included:
Alfred Hanks, Sr., Charles R. McBride, Peter Clegg, William McLaws,
and others. For the best results, the hard woods were used for fuel in the
kilns, such as red pine, pinion pine, white pine, balsom,
and spruce. The pine trees provided the
neighborhood children with their only source of chewing gum.
On the 22 October 1927, he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary at the Fraternal Hall in
this city. More that fifty of their posterity and friends participated in the
celebration, which consisted o[f] a program and a banquet. Numbers for the
program were given by grandchildren. There were present at the celebration a posterity of thirty-nine, nine children, twenty-seven
grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. His wife and three [of his]
children preceded him in death and he died at the age of eight-six at his home
in Tooele, 27 July 1931.
[Photo of Daniel James family in front of
their home]
Transcribed by Cara Williams Michas, 2008 (original spelling and grammar retained except
where indicated)."
