John Robin McDaniel (July 9, 1807 – May 14, 1878) was a businessman and leading citizen of Lynchburg, Virginia, who represented it for one term in the Virginia General Assembly.[1]
John R. McDaniel | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from the Campbell County district | |
| In office December 5, 1877 – May 1878 Serving with W. E. Burnham, A.S. Grigsby | |
| Succeeded by | H. Howard Withers |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 9, 1807 Amherst, Virginia, US |
| Died | May 14, 1878 (aged 70) Washington, D.C., US |
| Spouse | Eliza Foster Chaplin |
| Children | Oriana Robin McDaniel |
| Occupation | Businessman, politician, Freemason |
Early and family life edit
McDaniel was born to McDaniel and Dolly Waller Robinson in Amherst, Virginia on July 9, 1807. The large family (he was the youngest of six boys and a girl who survived to adulthood, two other daughters dying as infants) moved to nearby Lynchburg, where his mother died when he was nine. He received a private education.
McDaniel married Elizabeth Foster Chaplin on August 16, 1837, and they had a daughter, Oriana Robin McDaniel. It may have been his second marriage, for John Robin McDaniel Irby would later graduate from the University of Virginia and publish scientific papers.[2]
Career edit
His firm, McDaniel and Irby, were grocers and commission merchants. One of Lynchburg's leading boosters, McDaniel helped found the Lynchburg Gaslight Company,[3] and pledged his fortune to build the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, whose President he became.
McDaniel owned dozens of slaves.[4] He was once involved in litigation concerning a slave owned in trust whom he was supposed to hire out, but sold.[5] However, J. R. McDaniel was not one of Lynchburg's major slave traders like William Norvell, Chiswell Dabney, George Whitlocke, William Radford and John H. Tyree in the city's early years, and later consolidators (sending slaves to the Deep South) George Davis, M. Hart, E. Myers and Seth Woodroof.[6]
McDaniel was a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason[7] who served as the Grand Master of Masons in Virginia from 1860-1861.[8] McDaniel served on the Supreme Council beginning in 1847 and succeeded Lynchburg's James Penn as Lieutenant Grand Commander in 1870, serving until his death during a Masonic convention in 1878.[9]
In 1860, as the American Civil War began, McDaniel retired from his railroad position in favor of civil engineer Robert L. Owen Sr., who had helped survey the route and had been operating the railroad. During the Civil War, McDaniel received a contract to supply salt to Confederate forces from Saltville, Virginia, which the railroad transported. After the war, former Confederate General (and future Republican U.S. Senator, 1881–87) William Mahone, who headed the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad acquired most of the V&T stock (Lynchburg becoming a majority black city after the war and holding many shares),[10] and merged it and the South Side Railroad into the new Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad, which soon went bankrupt.
McDaniel remained active in many community activities. In 1877, he ran for the part-time position of delegate to the Virginia General Assembly representing Lynchburg, after controversial election results the previous year were thrown out by Judge James Garland after the ballots were stolen. McDaniel won the election and served in the session of December 5, 1877 – March 14, 1878.[1]
Death and legacy edit
McDaniel died of a heart attack, aged 72, in Washington, D.C. while attending a Masonic convocation, on May 14, 1878.[11]
References edit
- ^ a b Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) p. 525
- ^ "Irby, John Robin McDaniel, 1854-1880 | The Online Books Page". onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu.
- ^ Christian p. 153
- ^ 1850 U.S. Federal Census for Campbell County, Lynchburg, family 47, lists his real estate as worth $10,000, the most on the page. The corresponding slave schedule indicates he owned at least 61 slaves in Lynchburg that year, the majority female
- ^ "Race and Slavery Petitions, Digital Library on American Slavery". dlas.uncg.edu.
- ^ Marks, John (2007). "Abdication and Acceptance: Slave-Trading in Antebellum Lynchburg". Agora. 16. Lynchburg College: 12. Article 16.
- ^ Jurisdiction, Scottish Rite (Masonic order) Supreme Council for the Southern (1878). Transactions of the Supreme Council of the 33d and Last Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America. House of the Temple.
- ^ Simpson, Robert E. "Virginia's Grand Masters 1778 – 2012" (PDF).
- ^ "Leadership of the Scottish Rite in Virginia - Chronological Table".
- ^ W. Asbury Christian, Lynchburg and its people (Lynchburg: J.P. Bell 1900), p. 255.
- ^ Alexandria Gazette May 15, 1878 available at http://virginiachronicle.com/cgi-bin/virginia?a=d&d=AG18780515.1.2