Dear List, I have compiled the following data on the McDaniel family of Mahoning Twp., Carbon County PA. If anyone has information regarding this family, or the Haney family of Carbon County, please contact me. All information or suggestions appreciated. Judy McElderry >From "The History of Lehigh and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania" “It will be remembered that Capt. Joseph Longstreth purchased the Gilbert farm in 1783, and at that time Robert McDaniel came to the valley with him. He was born Aug. 24, 1756, in a small lumbering village near the Penobscot Falls, Maine. He was apprenticed by his father to Capt. Joseph Longstreth, of Philadelphia, to learn the trade of a tanner and currier, and lived in that city for some years. After a residence of a year or two at the mill with Capt. Longstreth in the valley, he bought a tract of land not far from the Gilbert mill, now partly owned by Samuel Moser, and married Elizabeth Hicks. She was born in 1766 and is said to have been a native of Lizard Creek Valley, and when very young was placed in charge of William Thomas, who lived near where the Benn Salem Church stands. No other knowledge of the Hicks family is obtained. They settled upon the farm, and lived many yea! rs. They died there, and were buried in the Benn Salem churchyard. Their children were Rachel, Nancy, Lydia, Elizabeth, Robert, and James. Rachel became the wife of Charles Haney, and settled in the township. Mrs. Henry Arner (Harriet Haney, mother a Sophia Edgar, [parents unknown, b. abt. 1803. Burial information for Sophia Edgar is in the Rev. Bauer’s Records at LCHS, Allentown, states Sophia died in 1851. The writing is in German and there are a few as yet indecipherable words in the personal information, but the surname Edgar appears and is followed by the words, “im Columbia County. This could be PA, or NY State as yet undetermined].is a daughter. Lewis Haney, for many years a teacher in the township and the first coroner of the county, was a son. Nancy became the wife of Samuel Solt, and settled in Lehighton. Lydia married Joseph Musselman, lived for a time in the township, and moved to Ohio. Oliver, a son, remained with his grandfather, and taught school in the towns! hip, was elected register and recorder in 1846 and 1849, and later moved to Ohio, where he is now a journalist. Elizabeth became the wife of Christian Klotz (who came from Lowhill, Lehigh Co.), in 1816. They settled near the homestead, and in 1823 moved to what is now the Hoppes Mill, where she died in 1826, aged thirty-one years. Robert, son of Robert, emigrated to the West. James, the youngest son, settled in the township, and died there. His son J. T. McDaniel, keeps the old Freyman Hotel, and is postmaster.” (History of Lehigh and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania, by Matthews and Hungerford, page 744). In the same book, in the text under Robert Klotz, is the statement: “…..Christian Klotz, a son of the latter, (Robert Klotz), was born in 1789, and about the year 1814 left his native township and soon after settled in Mahoning township, now Carbon County. Here, in 1816 he married Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert MacDaniel, whose wife was Elizabeth Hicks, a Quakeress….,” (History of Lehigh and Carbon Counties, Pennsylvania, by Matthews and Hungerford, page 708) OBITUARY OF ELIZABETH MCDANIEL: On Tuesday, March 5th. At her residence in Mahoning Twp., Carbon Co., ELIZABETH, consort of Robert McDaniel, at the advanced age of 76 years, 6 months, and 21 days. “Originally from Perkesy, Montgomery Co., she, at an early period of her life, in 1773 , came into the vicinity of Gnadenhutten, then a Moravian Missionary settlement of Christian Indians, and with the rest of the Pioneers of that unhappy hamlet, lived for many years exposed to the terrible inroads of the savage, who in the Revolutionary struggle seldom hesitated to kill by tomahawk, scalping-knife or torture any defenceless family they encountered in their bloody forays. None but the sharers in the stirring and startling events that characterized that period, can form an adequate idea of the risk and the constant uncertainty of life; and many a time was she, with the neighboring families, compelled to fly to the tangled thickets at the base of the Blue Ridge, a wretched shelter from the stealthy foe, who measured his prowess by his scalps. She was familiar with the tragical history of many an ill fated frontierman, but used to narrate with more than wonted earnestness, the ! story of the capture of a neighboring family, Simers by name, who were rescued only by a mere chance, by a few militiamen. On this occasion, a man by the name of Gable was disabled by a gun wound, and he was tomahawked and scalped. It pleased God to soften the hearts of these savages towards the family of Benjamin Gilbert, Mr. Lloyd, and others, and they carried off with them the brother of the massacred man, together with Mr. Lloyd. Her last days were her best. She was the mother of 9 children-3 sons and 6 daughters; and numbered at her decease 28 grand children, and 24 great grand children. “ The above obituary is from the March 26, 1844 edition of the “Carbon County Transit”, a newspaper from Mauch Chunk, [Microfilm at Dimmick Library, Jim Thorpe, PA] Note: Matthews and Hungerford states that Elizabeth was born on the Lizard Creek. This is likely incorrect as the area of Perkasie or Perkesy, is in Bucks County PA. This location is very near the Hilltown, Bucks County house of Richard Thomas, the father of William Thomas, a Tory who resided along the Lizard Creek in then Penn Twp., Northampton County, now Carbon County. If the obituary is correct regarding the 1773 arrival in Carbon County, then the William Thomas referred to as who it was that Elizabeth went to live with, “…when she was very young…”, must refer to William Thomas, a Tory, who had a house along Lizard Creek, still standing today and in the possession of the Semmel family of East Penn Twp. in Carbon County in 2001. This house was confiscated in 1778 and sold in 1780 to another William Thomas of Hilltown, Bucks County. OBITUARY OF ROBERT MCDANIEL: "On Monday last, in Mahoning township, Mr. Robert McDaniel, at the advanced age of 91 years. Mr. McDaniel was at the time of his death, the oldest inhabitant of the township in which he resided. He was born in the state of Maine on the 28th. day of August, 1756, at that time the province of New Hampshire. In 1770 he removed to Philadelphia county, where he lived until 1785, when he moved to Mahoning township in this county. He arrived there on the 25th. day of January, and continued to live at the same place until the day of his death. Mr. McDaniel was rather an extraordinary man. He partook a good deal of the qualities of Daniel Boon. He was a man of intelligence and had gone through all the dangers of a pioneer's life, and many were hhis hair-breadth escapes. He lived a life of usefulness, and died at a good old age, enjoying the confidence and esteem of a large circle of friends and acquaintances." (From the Carbon County Gazette, June 26, 1847, also at Dimmick Library)