Richard Daniels believed in soil fertility and the preservation of it and lived to see the work of his practice fully verified. Born in England, Daniels immigrated to the U.S. in 1852 and landed in Sarpy county in March 1867. He centered his efforts to good farming and to improved stock bringing to Nebraska a herd of pure-bred, pedigreed and registered cattle. His judgment in selecting feeders made him a hard contestant to beat in finished cattle.
The agricultural achievements of R.W. Daniels is the topic assigned me for discussion. From 1867 to 1902, thirty-five years, Richard Daniels or Dick Daniels, as he was more familiarly termed, was one of Nebraska’s most prominent and well-known pioneer citizens. This was due very largely to the personality of the man, to his ambition to achieve things, to excel, to accomplish more and better results than his neighbor. Richard Daniels was a man who was always in a contest, if not in open competition with his fellow citizen in show ring or fair, he would resort to competing against himself; he was always attempting to excel what he had formerly produced. This was true of this man in every line of agriculture and list stock in which he was engaged. He believed in soil fertility and the preservation of it. He farmed in view of improving his farm, dot depleting its resources; he admonished those about him to preserve what nature had bestowed so liberally in the native fertility of the land. He lived to see his admonition and the work of his practice fully verified.
Who was Richard Daniels? Richard Daniels was a native of England, born in Devonshire in the year 1830, where he grew to manhood, having served an apprenticeship in the butchering business and followed this line of work until 1852 when he came to the United States, first settling among the Germans in Chester county near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This class of Germans were a very prosperous people, commonly spoken of as the Pennsylvania Germans, but sometimes called Pennsylvania Dutch. Here his instinct to boss and supervise things soon secured for him the position of foreman over a large railroad grading gang, but his ambition to own and operate land and a business for himself directed him westward and he is next found located in Montreal, Canada, where he operated a butcher shop for himself for three years. Thence he came to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he opened a butchering business and engaged in the buying and selling of cattle until 1867 when he moved to Sarpy county, Nebraska, bringing with him five carloads of live stock, machinery and western emigrant outfit such as was usual in those days by the better-off class of homesteaders coming from the east.
Richard Daniels and his five carloads of farm furnishings and live stock landed in Council Bluffs, Iowa, March 13, 1867, and immediately he commenced unloading and crossing the Missouri River on the ice, as at this period of the year there was no time to be wasted for fear of a break-up of ice in the river. As soon as the last article comprising the five carloads had landed on the Nebraska side of the river, the moving caravan was started for the home locations previously selected in Sarpy county and which later comprised 520 acres bought from the original homesteaders. This farm is still known as the Richard Daniels’ farm, having descended to members of his family after his death and is located only a few miles southwest of the present military site of Fort Crook on the high, rolling lands which appealed to Mr. Daniels as possessing the best conditions for stock growing purposes. These lands were practically unimproved in respect to both building and cultivation when acquired by Mr. Daniels.
Mr. Daniels never possessed any of the land-grabbing inclinations so common among land owners. His ambition was to own no more than he could comfortably and conveniently handle under good live stock farming conditions and management. Thus he centered all his efforts to good farming and to improved stock and in these lines of industry achieved a degree of prominence and success that has carried his name into history as a citizen of Nebraska who has contributed benefits and improvements in these lines of industry that has become a source of advantage and profit to our state and our people.
Richard Daniels brought with him to Nebraska nineteen head of Shorthorn cattle, eighteen cows and one bull, the foundation of a herd of pure-bred, pedigreed and registered cattle. These were the best that he could get from leading breeders of Michigan. Such noted herds as the David herd, the Walbridge herd, the Cobb herd and the Austin herd were drawn upon in the laying of this foundation. There were of the Thomas Bates strain of Shorthorns, large cattle and big milkers, a combination of beef and milk qualities that their owner never failed to emphasize when he got in the show ring. This herd has always laid claim to being the first pedigreed and registered Shorthorn cattle that crossed the Missouri River and became an established breeding herd in the state. Almira 7th, calved in 1861, owned and bred by Jasper Barber of Avon, New York, was one of fine show cows that graced the Daniels’ show herd. She was a large white cow of exceptional breeding quality, and a great show cow. She was one of the special favorites in the Daniels’ herd. Mr. Daniels always prided himself as a breeder and producer of show cattle and never hesitated to show from his own herd against any “bought and fixed up” show herd that traveled the show circuits. He and his herd soon became known far and near and for many years to meet the Richard Daniels’ show herd in the open ring meant a contest that demanded quality and conditions that few breeders’ herds possessed.
For many years the Daniels’ herd was a familiar exhibit at the Nebraska state fair. Loyalty to his own state first, always brought Mr. Daniels and his show herd to Nebraska no matter how urgent the exhibition demands seemed to require attention elsewhere. A side light which reflects some of the exhibition history of Richard ambition was to put every pound of flesh on his cattle that could be profitably produced. This with his judgment in selecting feeders made him a hard contestant to beat in finished cattle. His son, R.H. Daniels, keeps up the same line of industry, feeding about 200 steers each year. The old home is carried on much the same as it was during Mr. Daniels’ life.
Mr. Daniels was a great lover of nature; he saw a beauty in trees, shrubs, flowering plants and vines. A towering burr oak tree now almost fifty years old, standing in the door yard, more than two feet in diameter, and as straight as an arrow, attests the kindness and generous consideration of this man of nature as it towers above its companions, a thing of beauty and grandeur, seemingly inspired to attain in life the ideal which by the will of its guardian, who selected it when a mere twig, to be spared and grown into this towering oak.
Richard Daniels died suddenly while attending the International Live Stock Show at Chicago, December 1902. He dropped dead while conversing with his cousin, Thomas Mortimer of Madison county, Nebraska.
