William Henry Daniel

https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/daniel-william-henry/

Farmer, businessman, tobacco pioneer. Born in North Carolina on March 1, 1841, “Buck” Daniel was a teamster in his family’s freight business in the Cape Fear region of that state. He joined the Confederate army in 1861, served in Virginia, and ended the war a prisoner in Elmira, New York. After the war Daniel came to South Carolina and settled in Marion County near Nichols. For several years he worked with James Battle in the naval stores business under the name of Battle and Daniel. In 1874 Daniel moved a few miles west to a new station stop—Mullins—on the Wilmington, Columbia, and Augusta Railroad. There Daniel founded a general mercantile business called W. H. Daniel Supply Company.

As prices for cotton and naval stores declined in the 1880s, local farmers were seeking a new cash crop. By the 1890s farmers in nearby Florence and Darlington Counties were successfully growing bright leaf tobacco. In 1894 Daniel raised eight acres of Bright Leaf and shipped his curings to a Danville, Virginia, market. Pleased with his profits, Daniel encouraged Marion County farmers to plant the new staple. To promote tobacco culture, Daniel enlisted experienced leaf growers from North Carolina as “instructors.” In 1895 Daniel led a group of investors to build Planter’s Warehouse, establishing Mullins as a tobacco market. Mullins soon became the state’s leading leaf market, its population tripling within five years. Daniel also led in the founding of the Bank of Mullins, the town’s first bank, in 1899. Daniel died in Mullins on October 24, 1915. He was buried in Cederdale Cemetery, Mullins.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44510140/william-henry-daniel

From Find a Grave:

Son of Thomas and Mary Shipp Daniel. William Henry Daniel was born in North Carolina on March 11, 1841, and married Miss Lou Martin, a daughter of Aaron Martin of Mullins.

A farmer and private banker and for many years regarded as one of the wealthiest men in the Mullins community. By his first marriage Mr. Daniel had four children: Robert; Kate, wife of George R. Reaves; and Mary and Rufus.

In 1881, at Marion, he married Miss Elizabeth Watson. Her father, James Watson, represented one of the oldest families of the old Marion district, and at the beginning of the Civil war the Watsons were chief among the extensive land and slave owners in this district and lost a fortune through the war. Mr. Daniel by his second marriage had the following three children: W. H. Daniel, Jr., of Mullins; Willena, Mrs. H. E. Yarboro of Mullins; and James Watson.

He was a private in Company C, 20 Regiment, NC Infantry, during the war. He enlisted down in Columbus, NC. William was 20 years old on April 26, 1861 when he enlisted. He was present or accounted for until wounded in the hip at Chancellorsville, VA in May of 1863. He returned to duty around July or August of 1863 and was captured at Spotsvylania Courthouse, May 12, 1864. He was confined for a spell at Point Lookout, Maryland before being transferred to Elvira, NY. He received his parole March of 1865 and was shipped back down to Jamestown VA for a prisoner exchange. He had had enough of the fighting and he deserted to the US Army on April 2, 1865, and took the oath of allegiance. William Henry settled in Mullins, SC.

"The fate of Mullins changed forever when William Henry Daniel, the town's leading merchant, threw his support behind Bright Leaf (the variety of tobacco grown in that region) in 1893. Daniel was a classic "new man" of the postwar South. Born near Raleigh, NC, the son of a wagon master, Daniel joined the Confederate army in 1861. He was captured and spent much of the war as a prisoner in Elmira, New York. After the war, Daniel settled in the Pee Dee and tried the naval stores business for a while. When naval stores began declining in the mid-1870s, Daniel moved to Mullins and established the W.H. Daniel Supply Company, trading with farmers in the surrounding county. Success followed, and Daniel acquired property and standing in the community."

- page 59, 'Long Green' by Eldred Prince