Michael Roberts Armstrong Watlington (1853-1937) married Eula Avenant Daniel (1861-1903), daughter of Ralph Whitfield Daniel and America Tabitha Anderson. Ralph Whitfield Daniel was living on a farm purchased in 1871 from Robert Arnold, which may have been part of the Anderson farmland, on what is now the Chester County line just south of Five Points, in the Pinson Mounds area. John R. Watlington purchased nearby land from Paulin Anderson, and the Arnolds owned land on the south and east of the Daniel place. These Arnolds were the ancestors of the singer-artist Eddie Arnold of the present era.
Ralph Whitfield Daniel was a leather worker and shoemaker by trade, and at the time of the Civil War that was such an indispensable work that he was excused from military service so that he could continue in it. However, since leatherworkers had at times to work at the curing of the leather, it was not by any means a prestige occupation. According to an often expressed opinion of Paulin Anderson, his daughter merited greater honor than to be the wife of a shoemaker. Evidently they tolerated one another very well though, for Ralph (called Rafe) and America lived as neighbors after 1871.
Ralph W. was the youngest son of a family that included seven known children, most of whom left descendents who scattered across West Tenn. and several of whom moved further west. There are considerable records on the families of Greenberry B., James Wm. Jr., Mahala (b. ca. 1821) who married William Johnson in Madison Co., Tenn., and Ralph Whitfield Daniel.
Descendents of the family are now identified in Madison, Crockett, Lauderdale, Haywood and Shelby Counties of Tennessee and several points in Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.
William Daniel, Obadiah Butler and David Butler had married
Williams sisters in Rowan Co., N.C., and evidently migrated
together to Madison Co. before 1830. The sisters were Mary Mahala
(Polly) Daniel, Nancy Butler, and Judith Butler (David). William Daniel
and Obadiah Butler held land in the Bear Creek Community, old Civil
Dist. #1 and David Butler nearer Parksburg. The kinship pattern was
remembered by some of the Butler and Johnsons and was documented
by Howard E. Johnson
by 1974.
We have not determined the parents of Mary Mahala Williams as yet,
but now have documentation that the father of William Daniel of
Rowan Co., N.C., and Madison Co., Tenn. was Josiah Daniel, Sr.,
who was born in Virginia and lived in Rowan Co., N.C. His wife and
the mother of William was Orpha Wilson.