Edward Daniels was born in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts, but moved west to Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 at the age of 21 to pursue a career as a geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 and academic. He was made the first state geologist of Wisconsin in 1853 and taught at Ripon College

Ripon College (Wisconsin)

Ripon College is a liberal arts college in Ripon, Wisconsin, USA. It offers small class sizes and intensive mentoring to students. Ripon has a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa--one of the nation's most prestigious honor societies. Alumni have high rates of success in the workforce as well as acceptance...

 and Carroll College

Carroll College (Wisconsin)

Carroll University is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian church located in Waukesha in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Carroll opened in 1846, two years before Wisconsin became a state...

.

He was a fervent abolitionist and became involved in the escape of fugitive slave Joshua Glover

Joshua Glover

Joshua Glover was a runaway slave from St. Louis, Missouri who sought asylum in Racine, Wisconsin in 1852. Upon learning his whereabouts in 1854, slave owner Bennami Garland attempted to use the Fugitive Slave Act to recover him. Glover was captured and taken to a Milwaukee jail...

 in 1854 as well as the plot to free abolitionist activist Sherman Booth

Sherman Booth

Sherman Booth was an abolitionist, editor and politician in Wisconsin. Born in Davenport, New York, Booth moved to Wisconsin from New York, just days before Wisconsin was granted statehood. He was one of the only members of the Free Soil Party in the state at the time, and he was a staunch...

 from federal prison in 1860. He was a part of the ill-fated "Free-Stater" expedition led by Jim Lane

James H. Lane (Senator)

James Henry Lane also known as Jim Lane was a partisan during the Bleeding Kansas period that immediately preceded the American Civil War. During the war, Lane served as a United States Senator and as a general who fought for the Union...

 into Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 in 1856, part of the Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...

 events.

Edward Daniels was quick to respond to the opening of hostilities between the States, organizing the 1st Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry Regiment

1st Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry Regiment

The 1st Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Service:The 1st Wisconsin Cavalry was organized at Ripon and Kenosha, Wisconsin between September 1, 1861 and February 2, 1862 and mustered into Federal service on March...

 in 1861. He served as the commanding officer of this unit from 1861-1863. The 1st Wisconsin was initially stationed in Missouri, but Col. Daniels took the initiative to lead successful raids into Arkansas. However, his actions were unauthorized and called into question by his commanders, leading to Daniels' resignation in 1863.

In 1868 Edward Daniels and his wife Ione Gove Daniels purchased the Gunston Hall

Gunston Hall

Gunston Hall is an 18th-century Georgian mansion near the Potomac River in Mason Neck, Virginia, United States of America. The house was the home of the United States Founding Father George Mason. It was located at the center of a 5500 acre plantation...

 estate in Virginia from descendants of George Mason

George Mason

George Mason IV was an American Patriot, statesman and a delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention...

. Daniels used the land to attempt a number of utopia

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

n and scientific farming schemes, including a school for freedmen. During the 1880's he and his wife were involved in Albert Kimsey Owen's utopian socialist "Topolobampo

Topolobampo

Topolobampo is a port on the Gulf of California in northwestern Sinaloa, Mexico. It is the fourth-largest town in the municipality of Ahome , reporting a 2005 census population of 6,032 inhabitants....

" colony in Sinaloa

Sinaloa

Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....

, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, though it is unclear whether they actually attempted to settle there.

During his time in Virginia, Daniels was actively involved in the politics of the Reconstruction South. He edited a Republican Richmond journal and ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 against former Confederate officer Eppa Hunton

Eppa Hunton

Eppa Hunton II was a U.S. Representative and Senator from Virginia and a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.-Early years:...

.

Edward Daniels died in Virginia in May 1916.

Sources

• 1st Wisconsin Cavalry Civil War Re-enactors Website http://www.1stwisconsincav.org/WrittenCavHistory.htm
• Edward Daniels Papers 1834-1900, (microfilm), Wisconsin Historical Society Library
• Robinson, Bertha Louisa, "Pilgrimages to American Landmarks - Gunston Hall", Journal of American History, 1910
• Obituary of Edward Daniels, The Daily Northwestern (Newspaper), Oshkosh, Wisconsin, May 12, 1916.