William Mc Daniel in King George, VA

[Anjuli51]

(11-21-2013 10:55 PM)SSlater Wrote:  DAVE. My source for "McDaniel", his deeds and his location, was Bill Tidwell. Later, it was shown in his CR. My next move for confirmation was The Census. McDaniel lived WHERE and WHEN, as stated in CR. Then I checked County Land Records and graveyards. Again -all OK.

In the late 1980's, I telephoned THORNTON McDaniel, here in KG (PS I have a picture of Thornton, and one of "Billy"). Thornton was living in the same area where William once lived. I related the story, as shown in CR, and asked if William really fed Booth a meal as he escape through KG. The next few words from him were a loud "NO, NO, No.(my heart sank, after a pause he said) The srvants did it. That was enough for me.

Recently, some friends of mine asked a current McDaniel, about the story that I just related here, and the 2010 McDaniel said That "he had never heard that story told by anyone in his family".

I do not accept that this negates anything that was said and done 148 years age, or 25 +/- years ago, because:
1. Was the 2010 McDaniel stating that he never heard the "Booth Story, or was he talking about Thornton's "The servants did it.
2. We are now poking into a Family History, where they surely believed that they did nothing wrong. William did not know that there had been an assassination, but when he learned that there was a shooting, he clamed-up, and laid-low.
3. We have been told, and we accept that a Blackman, Lucas, was driving the wagon that was carrying Booth. Apparently, Booth was not fed at Cleydael, or at the Lucas cabin. Was McDaniel's a normal stopping place for every Agent moving along the Secret Line? If so, Lucas would not have approached the "Boss" of the Safe-House, he would have approached the servants (I assumed to be Black). Thus, Thornton McDaniel was correct - "The servants did it".

If this story is Local Lore, I am not aware of it. I can't speak for Tidwell or Hall, but I can swear to my conversation with Thornton. Because this story is mis-referenced in the CR Index, - was this story a late add-on feature? For an event of this magnitude, I think it was not given enough, or proper, emphasis, which suggests that it was tossed-in late.

Having said all that, I will talk to Dave Gaddy, to see if he can add anything to the handling of this event. Dave just returned from an extended tour of Eastern U.S. States, visiting with family and friends, so I will give him a little time to unpack and clean out his mail box.

My name is Ellen McDaniel-Weissler. I attended Gettysburg College as a history major (Class of 1982) where I took the Lincoln Scholar Seminar with the famed Dr. Gabor Boritt, whom I imagine you have heard of. I wrote my seminar paper on Lincoln and the pacifist movement in the Civil War. I now teach adult Continuing Education classes in Civil War, Revolutionary War, Tudor and Stuart history, and many other subjects at Allegany College of Maryland. But oddly enough, none of this is what drew me to your forum.

I am also, in my spare time, taking up where my father left off in
tracing the McDaniel/Fitzhugh family genealogy. In my research, I
happened to stumble across these posts to your forum which discuss a
William McDaniel of Office Hall, King George County, VA, who is either
my great-great-great, or great-great grandfather, depending on whether
you are talking about William McDaniel (1804-1877) or William H.
McDaniel (1837-1906.) For the first time in your forum I read of the
legend that a William McDaniel of Office Hall (or his servants) gave
lunch to John Wilkes Booth and his companions during their escape from
Washington, DC after the assassination of Lincoln. Like other current
McDaniels mentioned in the posts on your forum, I had never heard this
story before, and was fascinated. (Our family legend, passed down from
my father, Lee Alton McDaniel, was that William H. McDaniel fought for
the South in the CW, yet I have also found a reference to a William H.
McDaniel who was taken prisoner in April 1864 in King George County, Va
by Cobb's Legion -- which would only have happened if he had been
fighting for the Union. The other family legend is that the elder
William McDaniel (called "Old Billy") had children by his slaves, who
then took his surname, and eventually there was a daughter born named
Harriet "Hattie" McDaniel who won the first Oscar ever by a Black
actress for playing Mammy in "Gone With The Wind." I have not been able
to substantiate this latter story.)

At any rate, I was hoping to post to the forum to find out more about
the connection of William McDaniel to the Booth story, and to see if I
could discover whether this was William McDaniel the Elder, or William
H. McDaniel. Unfortunately we have not been able to get back to William
McDaniel's parents in our search, and any little bit of information is
helpful. I remember being taken as a child to a cemetery in Office Hall,
VA to see the gravestones of William McDaniel and a John McDaniel (I believe it was William the Elder), but don't remember any other gravestones from that cemetery. I wish I had been old enough to truly take an interest in the subject, but I was about 6 at the time. (We were in Office Hall visiting my Great-Aunt Annie McDaniel Berry, granddaughter of William H. McDaniel.) Somewhere in my mother's photo albums we have photos taken at that cemetery. My father died in 2005 of Alzheimer's disease, but gave me all his research before that, so I am hoping to fill in some gaps, and stories about the family are welcomed with great eagerness. The one on your forum is just fascinating!

I also would love to be put in touch with the McDaniels mentioned in the forum posts who are currently alive -- they seem to be from my branch of the family, and I would eagerly correspond with them. There are so many McDaniels, it is difficult to pin down
relatives from one's own branch.