BIOGRAPHY: Daniels, Addison From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************* ADDISON DANIELS, - Among the early settlers of Linn County, few have been more successful, and are more worthy of special mention than the subject of this necessarily brief and imperfect sketch , who was born November 13, 1845, in Medway, Massachusetts, where his ancestors settled among the first pioneers of that state. His father being early left an orphan, afterwards married Jerntia Day, by whom he had a family of nine children, four of whom are still living in Linn County. He was engaged in agriculture, and died in his native state about 1843. His maternal grandfather, Oliver Day, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and a native of Massachuetts, where he died many years ago. Young Daniels was educated in the common schools of Massachuetts, and on his father's farm, where he worked until he was seventeen years of age, when he entered a store at Oakham, Massachuetts, in the capacity of a clerk, and remained some seven years, when in the Spring of 1837 he determined to seek a new field of operation, and a fortune in the West. He first landed in St. Louis, where he stopped for a few weeks but resided most of the time for the next three years in Clinton and Jefferson Counties, Illinois. In April, 1840, he came to Marion, and going to work with that indomitable energy and untiring industry which have characterized his whole life, did much towards transforming the wild unbroken prairie which for centuries had been the home and favorite hunting- grounds of the Indian, into the richly cultivated farms, elegant homes, and populous village, which now comprise the wealthy county of Linn. Although Marion had been selected the year previous as the county town, yet at the time Mr. Daniels arrived, there was not a building on the plat where the town now stands. He soon erected a log store, secured and opened a small stock of goods, and has since been continuously engaged in the mercantile business, in which he has been more than successful. In addition to his merchandising, he has dealt largely in real estate, being early convinced that a country possessing so many natural advantages, and such unrivaled beauty and richness of scenery and soil, would at no distant day become one of the most valuable portions of the west. In company with Messrs. Brown, Green and others, he purchased at the government sales the land where Cedar rapids now stands, and assisted in laying out that town, which has become one of the most, if not the most, important inland city in Iowa. He started west with about $ 200 in cash, half of which was spent on the journey, but replenishing it in Illinois, he arrived in Marion and commenced business on a small scale with that amount, by which careful and judicious management he has increased, until he can now count his thousands where before he counted dollars.