The
McDaniels were a planter family on the River Road east of today's Haleburg. In years past and at the beginning of the past century, "McDaniel's
Landing" was the port of choice used by Haleburg merchants, yeoman farmers and planters deeper into the piney woods. The landing was just south of the "South Abbey
Landing" located at the mouth of the
Abbie Creek on the Chattahoochee River. The
McDaniel Home stood where the present home of Herschel
Pelham is today. The land is owned by Charlotte Cumbie
Doster of St. Petersburg,
Florida, a descent of the
Grimsley family of Haleburg. The nearest post office was at Smithville,
Alabama for the
McDaniels in the 1880s, across the
Abbie Creek from the
McDaniel Plantation. They moved from the Old River Road across
Henry County to the Texasville area of
Barbour County circa 1880.
Like many planter families, the
Columbia Cemetery was used for burial and was located in
Henry County until
Houston County was formed in 1903. Phillip Alfred McDanielSr. is buried in this very old cemetery. This was P. A. McDaniel, Sr., the son of John
McDaniel and Sara Ira Terry. P. A. McDaniel, Sr. was born in the Edgefield District of
South Carolina. Many old families in Henry and
Barbour County came from this area. In South
Barbour County there remains today a community called "Edgefield,
Alabama" that a group of settlers named after their native home in
South Carolina. Some other old families from Edgefield District or nearby were the families of Hartzog, Adams,
Espy, Spann, Kirkland (Hugh, Sr.), and
Zorn.
The
Columbia Cemetery marker of Phillip Alfred
McDaniel shows the he was born February 13, 1813 and died March 30, 1888.
His wife, Jane Elizabeth Walker, was born October 23, 1813 in
Washington,
Wilkes County,
Georgia. She died August 1, 1888.
One son is buried in the
Columbia Cemetery: John C. McDaniel who died in service of the Confederacy at Chancellorsville, Virginia May 3, 1863. He was born February 22, 1844.