LEAVES FROM OUR TREE:

THE GREAT "OSBORN" CONTROVERSY

Let us introduce this study by offering some background on the Capt. Allen Daniel/Capt. John Osborn Daniel controversy, which we have nicknamed "The Great Osborn Controversy" That controversy has raged for years among serious researchers of the Daniel families who, after the Revolutionary War, settled in the parts of original Wilkes County Georgia that became Elbert County in 1790 and Madison County in 1811. Most Daniel family researchers have unquestioningly relied on three published works that proffered vaguely similar stories about the Daniel families in this part of Georgia. The first book to mention the subject, originally published in 1940 and reprinted several times, was The Official History of Elbert County 1790-1935, by John H. McIntosh. On page 100 he stated:

"Allen Daniel [Jr.]...was born in Virginia in 1772.... The father of Allen Daniel was also named Allen. He was born in Virginia in 1738, and died in 1814. During the American Revolution he was Captain in the 8th Virginia Line Regiment."

And on page 101 McIntosh continued:

"There has been much confusion regarding Allen Daniel for the reason that his uncle, John O. Daniel, brother of Allen Daniel, Sr., was the father of a son who also bore the name of Allen. This Allen was the father of a son named Allen. Since all of them resided in Elbert County, and Allen, son of John, was near the same age as Allen, son of Allen, it can readily be understood why confusion has so often arisen. [Note: Allen, son of John, was born in 1810, while Allen, son of Allen, was born in 1772, a 38 year difference in ages.]

"John O. Daniel served in the Revolution with distinction and came to Elbert County in 1785 with General George Mathews."

The second book was William C. Stewart's Gone to Georgia, published in 1965 by the National Genealogical Society. On page 273 Stewart wrote:

"...Allen Daniel, Sr., a Revolutionary soldier, was born 1738 in Virginia, and died in Madison County, 1814, having previously lived in Elbert County. He married Mary Allen and had children Elizabeth (married Aaron Johnson), Allen, Jr. (born in Virginia in 1772, married Mary, daughter of Russell Jones, served in the War of 1812, died 1836), James (married Elizabeth, daughter of James Jones, and second Delilah Eunice Wilson) and Charity (married Elisha Johnson). Allen appears in the Wilkes County records as early as 1788.  In 1789 William Allen bought land on Beaverdam Creek from William and Nancy Daniel, with Allen Daniel as a witness...."

The third book, published in 1967, was Our Family, The Daniels, written by Clifford Daniel Smith and Fern Gholson Daniel. It obviously relied on information found in the first two books and added some new twists of its own, stating that Capt. Allen Daniel:

"...came to Elbert County., Ga. from Prince Georges County, Virginia, in 1785, with his two brothers, John O. Daniel, Jr., and David Daniel. The two latter settled in Moss District, Elbert County, near Carpenter Mill. Capt. Allen Daniel settled in that part of Elbert County now known as Madison County."

Interestingly, a much earlier publication, Historical Collections of Georgia, written by Rev. George White, M.A., and originally published in 1854, mentioned John Daniel of Elbert County only for his longevity (he lived to be 80), and for Madison County mentioned only "General" Allen Daniel [Allen, Jr., for whom Danielsville, Georgia was named]. Rev. White personally did the research for this book on location, talking with living children and grandchildren of the early settlers of these counties, yet he mentioned little to nothing about Capt. John Daniel or Capt. Allen Daniel, two men who were very prominent citizens during their lifetimes, and certainly nothing about any relationship between these men.

Another early author, Rev. Groves H. Cartledge (1820-1899), in his Historical Sketches, wrote historical and biographical sketches of people in the frontier area of northeast Georgia and lived in Madison County, Georgia for most of his life. Many of his "sketches" were published in church periodicals during his lifetime. He, too, personally knew, associated with and/or served as pastor to the children and grandchildren of the earliest settlers of the Elbert/Madison counties area of Georgia. In one sketch originally written about 1885 and reprinted in Historical Sketches: Presbyterian Churches and Early Settlers in Northeast Georgia [a compilation of his works by Jessie Julia Mize and Virginia Louise Newton, published in 1960 and reprinted several times], Rev. Cartledge wrote:

"...In 1786, George Elliott, Sr., and his five sons...made the first settlement between the North and South forks of the Broad River [in Madison County, GA]. In 1787 and 1788, many others followed....

"About the same time Gen. Allen Daniel from Va,...and others settled on the Scullshoal and Bluestone creeks...."

So why, then, did later writers and family researchers believe so strongly that these three men—Capt. Allen Daniel of Madison County, Georgia, Capt. John Daniel of Wake County, North Carolina/Elbert County, Georgia, and an elusive David Daniel—were brothers who came to Georgia about 1785, when there were major discrepancies between the published works? Why did some descendants and family researchers through the years theorize that the father of the three "brothers" was probably a John O. Daniel of Prince Georges County, Virginia, when no such statement was made and no source citations were included in any of the published works? Lastly, why were so many descendants of Capt. John Daniel of Elbert County, Georgia, absolutely convinced that his middle name was "Osborn" when no such name was mentioned in any of the published works and no source citation was listed to support this name?

Diane Carrington Bradford, a documented descendant of Capt. Allen Daniel of Madison County, Georgia and Webmaster of Leaves From Our Tree, decided in March 2004 to find the answers to these questions. After enlisting the able assistance of Garland Payne Daniel (Webmaster of Under The UnicornThe Daniel Family with emphasis on Daniel families in the southern states), and some other family researchers, we began in-depth research and discussion to either verify or disprove the previously published data/legends, with the result being that we debunked the legends to our satisfaction. Here are the facts as we found them.

1. The legend that three alleged brothers "came to Georgia about 1785," or that "John O. Daniel ... came to Elbert County in 1785 with General George Mathews."—

Capt. Allen Daniel, born cir. 1738 in Virginia, commanded the 8th Virginia Line Regiment in the Revolutionary War, then he and his wife Mary Allen Daniel, two sons and two daughters came to Georgia from Virginia and settled in that part of original Wilkes County, Georgia that later became part of Madison County in 1811. Capt. Allen Daniel first appeared in the old Wilkes County land records in 1788. In 1789 William Allen bought land on Beaverdam Creek from William and Nancy Daniel, with Allen Daniel as a witness. A deed of record in Madison County stated, "being a part of a 287-acre tract granted to Allen Daniel..." (Deed Record Book F., Page 185). This was a Bounty Grant, a type of grant awarded only to those with proof of Revolutionary War Service for the United States. The land deeds and Rev. Cartledge's writings agree with and support what Stewart wrote in Gone To Georgia, but not the 1785 arrival date asserted in Our Family, The Daniels.

Capt. John Daniel did, indeed, settle in the Moss District of Elbert County, an area of Elbert County that remained in Elbert after Madison was created. He served in the North Carolina troops during the Revolutionary War, and he stated on his military pension application that he was born in Wake County, North Carolina 5/23/1762. He and his wife Margaret Means Daniel and their first four children did NOT arrive in Georgia until about 1800, and that is documented by the fact that on the 1850 and 1860 Elbert County or Gwinnett County census reports, their four oldest children (James J., born 1792, Nancy, born 1794, David, born 1799 and Martha, born 1800) ALL stated that they were born in NORTH CAROLINA. Their fifth child, Elizabeth, born 1803, was the first one to state she was born in Georgia. Extant primary data did NOT support the 1785 arrival date asserted in Our Family, The Daniels, or an 1875 arrival with General George Mathews (who, incidentally, was from Augusta County, Virginia) as asserted in McIntosh's The Official History of Elbert County 1790-1935.

So the combination of land deeds, pertinent census data and writings of the period very effectively debunk the 1785 arrival date for either Capt. Allen Daniel in Madison County or Capt. John Daniel in Elbert County.

2. The legend that Capt. Allen Daniel, Capt. John Daniel and an unidentified David Daniel were brothers—

Some researchers state that Capt. John Daniel (m Margaret Means) and David Daniel (m Margaret Lynch) settled in the Moss District of Elbert County. Some researchers also state that David Daniel died by 1818 in Elbert County, while others say he died in North Carolina, and still others say he went to Mississippi. There was a David Daniel mentioned briefly in some very early land records in the general area of Wilkes=>Elbert=>Madison County and Wilkes=>Elbert County, but he disappeared from the records before the 1820 census (the first one available for Georgia), and no other documentation was ever found to support the presence of this alleged "brother" in Georgia. The David Daniel listed on the 1830 Elbert County census report was the son of Capt. John Daniel. There was no David Daniel who died cir 1818 buried in Elbert County, at least not in a known or marked grave.

If there was a David Daniel who arrived in Elbert County with Capt. John Daniel and his family, it's possible that he was a brother or uncle of Capt. John Daniel. Woodson Daniel of Wake County, North Carolina, now assigned as the father of Capt. John Daniel, ;did have a documented son named "David," b 1768 (who m Margaret Lynch), as well as a documented brother named "David." Note, however, that there was no known relationship between Woodson Daniel of Wake County, North Carolina and Capt. Allen Daniel of Virginia=>Madison County, Georgia. However, if this David Daniel had been a "brother" of Capt. Allen Daniel, there would have been a very improbable 30-year age difference between them.

Now, consider the 24-year age difference between the other two alleged brothers, not impossible, but in this instance highly suspect. Also consider the fact that Capt. Allen Daniel was born in Virginia and Capt. John Daniel in North Carolina, as documented by his Revolutionary War pension application. If they were "brothers," how were they born in different states when their supposed father, John O. Daniel, Sr., was said to have lived and died in Virginia?. Also, if they were "brothers," why did they serve in the Revolutionary War in different states?

Most importantly, NO extant primary documentation supporting a relationship between these men was ever found. Nor has any primary documentation surfaced supporting the existence of a "John Osborn Daniel, Sr.," in either Virginia or North Carolina during the right time frame to have been the father of the three alleged "brothers. The overly wide age span between the three men, the different geographic locations, plus the very telling lack of supporting documentation sufficiently debunk the "brothers" legend.

3. The middle name of "Osborn" for Capt. John Daniel—

While many of John Daniel's descendants claim that his full name was John Osborn Daniel, there were NO extant court or military documents showing a middle name of "Osborn," or any other middle name, for that matter, that we or any other researcher found. No family researcher who posted data on Capt. John "Osborn" Daniel on the Internet also posted any documentation, primary or secondary, supporting that middle name—no vital records, no family Bible record for Capt. John Daniel, no land deeds, nothing. Even McIntosh in his 1940 book listed him as "John O. Daniel, but did not cite any sources for that name. What we found was that in his father's 1791 estate papers "John Daniel" was named. In various land deeds in North Carolina he was listed or signed as "John Daniel." On all census reports he was listed only as "John" Daniel. On his military pension application he was listed as "John Daniel."

The "John O. Daniel" or "John Osborn Daniel" name apparently came from poorly researched and documented DAR applications from the early 1900s. Later researchers relied on those applications and produced unverified genealogy reports in books and now on the Internet that have been copied and repeated ad nauseum, but those are NOT acceptable data sources. For that reason Diane and Payne have removed the "Osborn" name from their respective Web sites until such time as someone can provide PRIMARY documentation of that name (not family legend, or "it's always been used in the family...").

So, while Capt. John Daniel of Wake/Elbert might have had a brother or uncle named "David", who might have been in Elbert County in its earliest days, that is, at this point, only speculation. After all the research and verification, and a considerable amount of discussion between Diane, Payne and a few others, we submit our considered opinion that:

1. None of the men at the focus of this research project arrived in the Wilkes=>Elbert=>Madison area in 1785, and there is nothing extant to support the presence of a David Daniel, b 1768, in the area under review. Neither was there any documentation supporting the existence of a "John Osborn Daniel, Sr.," in the right place at the right time who could have fathered the three men at the focus of this project.

2. The two men, Capt. John Daniel of Wake/Elbert and Capt. Allen Daniel of Virginia/Madison County were NOT brothers.

3. The middle name of "Osborn" for Capt. John Daniel was a mistaken assumption on the part of a very early, unknown researcher, which has been perpetuated by family legend and repetition by other researchers.

We hope this explanation helps the reader understand how and why we have come to these conclusions. We remain willing to reconsider our position if and when someone can provide unassailable PRIMARY documentation of a relationship between any of these men, or of a middle name—any middle name—for Capt. John Daniel of Wake/Elbert.

Diane Carrington Bradford

and

G. Payne Daniel

PostScript:

In 2005 two male descendants of Capt. John Daniel of Wake/Elbert submitted test kits to the DANIEL Y-DNA Project, and their test results were posted on the project Web site.

Descendants of John and Margaret (Means) DANIEL on WorldConnect

For more information, send e-mail to

You are visitor number:

Home | Photo Gallery | Surname Index on World Connect

Backgrounds and graphics created by Diane Carrington Bradford
Copyright © 2000, 2004,2005, Diane Carrington Bradford,. All rights reserved
This Web Site was Created Jul 9, 2000; major revisionJul 2005.

Last updated August 1, 2005 4:51 AM

This site is generously hosted by