Family ties bind Daniels kin, N.C. history

WANCHESE, N.C. 

Melvin Daniels Jr. likes to tell a story about President Franklin Roosevelt, his fancy touring car and a group of dazzled Outer Bankers.

Roosevelt, in town in August 1937 to see "The Lost Colony," was seated in the car next to Gov. Clyde Hooey and U.S. Rep. Lindsay Warren, a Beaufort County Democrat and family friend who liked to play checkers with the young Daniels.

Daniels and four other boys were standing nearby admiring the car when the congressman leaned to the president and whispered. Next thing Daniels knew, a stern man was walking up to them.

"The Secret Service man says, 'Which one of you is Daniels?' " Daniels recalled.

"Five of us raised our hands."

It was soon determined, Daniels said, that Warren wanted him to go over to the car. "He said, 'Mr. President, I want you to meet the best checker player on Roanoke Island!' "

Daniels' reaction to meeting the president?

"It was a beautiful car."

Laughing at the retelling, Daniels, 86, said the story illustrates not only the proliferation

of Danielses on the island but also the proud history of one of the Outer Banks' largest and oldest families.

Today, the Daniels family is hosting its 75th family reunion in Wanchese at Bethany United Methodist Church - the same place it has been held every year since 1934.

Considering that the Danielses arrived on Roanoke Island 275 years ago, it's no wonder that the name fills a page and half of the 2009 phone book and that nearly all natives of Roanoke Island have some Daniels blood somewhere in their roots.

Typically, about 250 to 300 people attend the reunion. Daniels said it is nearly impossible to guess how many people all over the country belong to the Daniels family tree.

"There are oodles and oodles of them," he said. "Not only do the Danielses have handsome men," he said, pausing for a self-deprecating chuckle, "but they also have beautiful girls. And they married Tilletts, Midgetts, Austins, Etheridges and Hookers. That has really added to it."

Those Danielses regularly on the court docket?

"We don't look in that direction," Daniels said dryly. "We don't recognize them."

Prominent members of the Daniels family include state Sen. Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat and longtime Senate leader.

Basnight's mother was Cora Mae Daniels, who played Agona in "The Lost Colony" for many years.

Josephus Daniels, the ambassador to Mexico and the founder and publisher of the Raleigh News & Observer, organized the first reunion with the late Melvin R. Daniels Sr., Dare County's registrar of deeds for 54 years.

Before he was appointed ambassador by Roosevelt, Josephus Daniels was secretary of the Navy under Woodrow Wilson. Legend has it that Daniels was responsible for replacing rum-based grog with coffee, inspiring sailors to coin the term "cup of Joe."

But the most famous family member of all may be John T. Daniels, the surfman who snapped the photograph of the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903. It was the first and last time John Daniels ever used a camera, but the photograph is one of the most recognized and widely circulated in the world.

Melvin Daniels Jr., a banker since 1951, served as mayor of Elizabeth City for a couple of terms and as state senator for 10 years.

The Wanchese Danielses have ancestor William Daniels to thank. After landing in Boston with his brother Thomas from Devon, England, William came to Roanoke Island with a land grant for the southern end of Roanoke Island. Melvin Daniels said he still owns 5-1/2 acres of that same land.

"Thank goodness that William Daniels was smart and came South," Daniels joked in a 1991 interview, "or I would have been born a Yankee."

Daniels Day, the name given the reunion, has always included a guest speaker: several governors, state and federal elected officials, educators. For the 67th reunion, actor Andy Griffith spoke. Then-Sen. John Edwards also made some brief remarks before running out without shaking any hands or trying a hush puppy.

This year, the guest speaker is Group Capt. Pete Round of the Royal Air Force, a NATO liaison.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com