Brief History of Mansfield A. Daniels After Whom the County of Daniels Has Been Named

M.A. Daniels was born at Addison, Pennsylvania April 2, 1858, the oldest son of John and Levina F. Daniels. At the age of ten, he moved west to Albion, Iowa, where he received a common school education and worked in the carpenter trade. Later he worked in a dry goods store and went on the road selling cigars and tobacco, which occupation he followed for ten years. On April 6, 1880, he was united in marriage to Adele Timmons, at Marietta, Iowa. No children were born to this marriage. In July 1907, Mrs. Daniels passed away. Being of that sturdy American pioneer type who seem to grow restless under the influence of civilization and ease, Mr. Daniels moved in April 1896 to Poplar, Montana where he was destined to do his share in the carving out and making a new empire. He became identified there with the government service and became a fast friend of Major Charles Richardson Anderson Scobey, who was then Indian Agent for the Fort Peck reservation, and the man the town of Scobey is named after. Mr. Daniels received the appointment of U.S. Land Commissioner at Poplar and spent his time with the duties of that office and other odd jobs around the Indian agency, including his old trade of carpentering.

In 1901, Mr. Daniels made his first trip north to the present site of “Old Scobey” which is located on the west bank of the Poplar river about two miles southwest of the present town of Scobey. Here he conceived the idea of starting the farming and r...