Frank McDaniel (1890 - 1955) Born 11 March 1890 in Clark Co. Missouri. He moved into the South Western Colorado met and married Vivian W. Barton. Frank worked as a blacksmith in many applications, mining, road construction, lumber industry.
THE FOLLOWING IS HOW FRANK J REMEMBERS HIS DAD AND FAMILY
My earliest remembrances. Dad was the second child. He had an older brother and a younger sister who died in infancy, Harry and Grace. After three more children his mother died--so that left Dad, who was the oldest the job of mothering the younger ones. The family migrated from Kentucky to Missouri and finally ended up in Durango, Colorado. His formal education the 5th grade. He quit school as he had had the same books for the last three years. He apprenticed to a blacksmith where he learned the trade.
After his marriage he went to work for the forest service where he became a Ranger in the Pagosa Springs district.
My brother and I were both born in the ranger station --our mother was attended by Dr. Mary who came out to the ranger station in a horse an buggy.
After four years with the forest service he went to work in a privately owned blacksmith shop in Pagosa Springs. Sometime later he moved the family to Los Angeles where he worked in the oil fields. From there we moved to Dayton Nevada where he was hoisting engineer in a gold mine owned by one of my mom's relatives. Among his other jobs at the mine he had to make supply runs into Dayton (27 miles) in a model T ford truck. A year or so later he bought the truck from the mine and moved the family back to Durango. This was in 1926.
LtoR (Ching) Leland Armstrong, Clare Carpenter, Mr. Chapman, Lyle Carpenter, Roy Bonham, Frank McDaniel(grandfather).
Well back to my saga----what I remember from that time was that we moved into a house that was bought in Animas City across the river on second street where we lived until 1936. Dad worked for La Plata county for several years while all of my brothers and my sister went to school in Animas City (to eighth grade) Carol and Harry both graduated from high school in Durango. 1936 was a pretty eventful year for the family as Mom and Dad's marriage failed and they went their separate ways. I went with Dad and we went to Coos Bay Oregon where Dad worked in a blacksmith shop down on front street --- most of the work came from the fishing fleet and also many logging outfits in the area. I went to Marshfield High for six months when we moved to Chiloquin Oregon. I finished the year and my junior year there. Dad was working in a logging camp at Yamsey, about 90 miles in the mountains--I boarded with a family in Chiloquin while in school.
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