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Pioneer Name : Daniel Moroni Daniels

Birth date and place: 20 December 1856, Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah

Death date and place: 20 June 1938, Malad City, Oneida, Idaho

Father: Thomas Daniels

Mother: Mary Davis

Who married and date: Catherine Elizabeth Owens  2 December 1885

Year arrived in Utah: Native Pioneer    

Who wrote history and date: Mary Williams Felix

Who filed history and date: Mary Williams Felix April 1987   

Phone: 394-6929    Address: #10 Sylvia Drive, Ogden, Utah 84405

Camp Name: Camp #49

County Name: Far South Center Company Weber County

Camp Historian: Wilda Hebdon Howell

Address: 3770 Grant Avenue, Ogden, Utah 84405

County Historian: Donna Gibbs Godfrey

Address: 1771 E. Victoria CT., Ogden, Utah 84403

Source of Information and page numbers:  History of Daniel Moroni Daniels was given by himself to a reporter, Joe Williams, for the Oneida Enterprise and I was present and heard him. I lived with my grandparents for 13 years and I got to know him very well.

Daniel Moroni Daniels

Written by Granddaughter Mary Williams Felix

Daniel Moroni Daniels was born December 20, 1856 in Brigham City, Box Elder County, Utah, the third child of seven children born to Thomas Daniels and Mary Davis. Dan had two sisters, Mary Jane and Sarah Ann and four brothers Thomas D., David M., John M. and Joseph.

Dan’s parents were born in Wales and emigrated to Utah. His father Thomas Daniels and Grandparents Daniel Daniels and Mary Davis came to Utah in the George A. Smith Company October 27, 1849 with the first foreign speaking emigrants. His mother Mary Davis came to Utah with her parents, Daniel and Mary Davis.

Dan attended school in Brigham City at the County Court House under William Watkins. The family moved to the Malad Valley in April 1865. He was ten years old when his Mother died and her last child Joseph a day after he was born on the 14 April 1865. She was the first person buried in Malad. There were only four families there when they arrived. Dan and his family lived in a one room log house with a dirt floor and roof. Their neighbors were R. G. Evans and the Richard Jones family. The only road was the one which the mail route used and passed up Bannock street and out through St. John. He attended school in the first schoolhouse built in Malad. It was a log building located where the City Hall was later bult. His teacher was Richard G. Evans. As he got older he wanted a better education, so with 20 other friends they hired R. G. Evans as a teacher. A log building of the Reorganized church was rented. The only recreation they had was dancing occasionally.

Dan’s occupations were farming and stock raising. He was one of the first men to take up raising Purebred Hereford cattle in Malad. When they used to have stock shows in Ogden he always came to Ogden to sell and show his cattle. He was the first man to take up land in Daniels, Idaho and built the first house there in 1877. The place was named after him and called Daniels. He freighted from Utah to Montana for B. F. White. Later he operated an outfit of his own. While freighting for B. F. White a trip was made from the Salt Works in Wyoming to Boise. On the way back from Boise instead of going to Kelton they cut off at Albion and went East down the Oregon Trail, crossed Raft River to the Sublet Canyon, continued through the canyon to the Twin Springs rock house. From there they went East to Ireland Canyon and to Pleasantview. This was the first trip through Ireland Canyon with wagons. In the company were 54 head of cattle and 9 wagons. Dan suggested a state highway be built from Holbrook through Sublet Canyon. This would shorten the distance about 40 to 50 miles to Boise.

While freighting he had many interesting experiences with the Indians. One trip on his way to Montana, he met three Indians. They were coming on their horses on a dead run, all painted up and were on the warpath. They were armed with rifles and one was waving a woman’s scalp from the end of a long stick. Luck was with him for they passed on.

One summer while the Nez Perce Indains were on the warpath he was camped at Hole in the Rock and the Nez Perce were camped just 15 miles west on Medicine Lodge creed. The freighters were talking that night about what they would do if the Indians should come. One man, thinking he would try them out, slipped out of camp and fired a shot over the campfire. The men all ran for their guns. One shouted he knew where the shot came from. This frightened the man who was playing the joke and he shouted “Don’t shoot it is only me.”

Dan’s father remarried a year after his Mother died to Jennet Dives, a widow who had five children. They became parents of eight more children, making a family of 19 children. They were a very happy family and all got along well. In fact two of his father’s children married two of his step-mother’s first children.

Dan married Mary Ellen Jones in Malad, March 20, 1883 when he was 26 years old. A wedding dance was held at the Court House. This dance was held for Dan and Mary Ellen Jones and Jedd Jones and Sarah Ann Daniels who was Dan’s sister. They had a double wedding. Mary died the following year when her first baby, a girl, who also died, was born.

On 2 December 1885 Dan married Catherine Elizabeth Owens in the Logan Temple. They were the parents of 12 children and they all grew to maturity, 8 girls and 4 boys. My mother Mary is the oldest. Their children were: Mary, Daniel, Leroy, Catherine, Luther, Florabel, Russel, Lenna and Lona (twins), Margaret, Pearl, and Fern. He also helped rear 2 granddaughters, myself and Florable Tovey. When his first child Mary was small she sang and he always stood by her so she wouldn’t be afraid to sing. 

Dan played an important part in the progress of the Malad community, being President for the Malad Irrigation Company for 6 years. When the Malad Creamery was organized in 1918 he was made President and held that position until he died in 1938. He served as a High Councilman in Malad Stake and had been active in Church affairs since early youth. He was County Commissioner of Oneida County and Mayor of Malad for 6 years. He was Mayor during World War I when the Flu epidemic was so bad and had to shut the town down.

He saw three church buildings on the First Ward corner and helped also to build three school buildings.

The people that influenced his life most were R. G. Evans, his Grandfather Daniel Daniels, his father and stepmother.

His outstanding accomplishment during his life was establishing the system for measuring water for the Malad Valley Irrigation Company. There never was an accurate plan for measuring the water until then. The most outstanding events that happened during his life were World War I and the Flu Epidemic of 1918 and 1919. His advice to young people was “Be honest and specialize in some occupation.”

He was quite stocky built, had blue eyes, and his hair was brown with a reddish cast when he was young, which later turned to gray. He was very kind and gentle but whenever he told you to do anything you knew enough to go do it right away. When he was older he became hard of hearing. He was known all over town as Uncle Dan. Dan died in Malad June 20, 1938 at the age of 81 ½ years old. When he died he had 8 children living, 35 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren, four daughters preceded him in death.

If anyone was ever in trouble or needed help he was always the first one to help.