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The Barney History Project: The people, places, and stories of Barney, Georgia

Daniel McCranie Sr.: Coffee Road pioneer and early Lowndes commissioner

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Research conclusion

Daniel McCranie Sr. was born about 1772, lived in Montgomery County, Georgia, by 1820, and moved into the Irwin-Lowndes frontier during the 1820s. Later county histories identify him as a Coffee Road settler and one of the commissioners appointed to select the Lowndes County site in 1825. Census records place the elder Daniel in Lowndes County in 1830, 1840, and 1850. A modern cemetery memorial says he died June 17, 1854, and was buried at Wilkes Cemetery in present Cook County, but no contemporary death, probate, or burial record was found online.[1-9]

The often-repeated claim that McCranie became Lowndes County's first postmaster in March 1827 is not proved by the federal records inspected here. Huxford and later writers say an office called Lowndes Court-house opened at McCranie's Coffee Road home and moved to William Smith at Franklinville in July 1828. Yet the federal Official Register as of September 30, 1827, does not list a Lowndes office, while the 1829 register directly lists Franklinville with William Smith. The local tradition may preserve a short-lived or administratively delayed office, but its exact opening date and McCranie's appointment remain unresolved.[4,10-12]

Identity and migration

The 1820 Montgomery County census lists Daniel McCraney, a man aged 45 or older, with a woman of the same age class, eight younger free white household members, and two enslaved people. Two people were engaged in agriculture.[1]

In 1830, Daniel McCraney was in Lowndes County. The household contained a man and woman aged 50-59 and six younger people, with no enslaved people recorded.[2] In 1840, Daniel McCranie was 60-69, living with a woman of the same age class; the household was engaged in agriculture, and no enslaved people were recorded.[3]

The 1850 census gives the best direct age estimate: Daniel McCranie, 78, farmer, in Lowndes County, with Kittie, 46, Melvina J., 26, and Wesley, 5. The record does not state relationships.[4] Daniel's age points to birth about 1772 and connects cleanly with the earlier census sequence.

Later accounts say his first wife was Sarah McMillan and his second wife was Kittie or Kitty Paige. The 1850 household directly proves Kittie's presence, not the marriage. Sarah's identity and the second marriage are family-history and memorial claims because no original marriage record was found.[7-9]

County organization and Coffee Road settlement

The act organizing Lowndes County was approved December 24, 1825. The Digital Library of Georgia's transcription of the legislative volume names "Daniel McCraney" among the commissioners charged with selecting the permanent county site. The later newspaper reprint uses a different surname spelling.[5] Huxford identifies the commissioner as Daniel McCranie.[6]

The identification remains strong probable. The DLG transcription supports Huxford's reading, but it is a modern text rendering, not a facsimile of the printed act. The original printed page or enrolled manuscript is still needed to settle the exact lettering.

Huxford places McCranie's home on the Coffee Road, at the later Dick Hutchinson place. A modern Ray City history article narrows it to Land Lot 416 in the 9th District.[6,9] No original deed, plat, or tax entry located online ties Daniel Sr. to Lot 416. The defensible conclusion is a broad Coffee Road residence in the area that later became Cook County; the exact lot and house site remain probable at best.

An 1838 tax digest row explicitly names "Daniel McCranie Sr." and lists three 202½-acre tracts in Wilkinson County, including Lots 39 and 40 in the 11th District and Lot 263 in the 6th District.[13] This is secure evidence for the elder because the suffix appears on the row. An 1844 Lowndes tax row names an unsuffixed Daniel McCranie with 490 acres in Land Lot 314, 9th District.[14] It cannot safely be assigned to the elder: Daniel Jr. was separately active by then.

The first-post-office claim

Huxford says Lowndes County's first post office was established March 31, 1827, as "Lowndes Court-house", with Daniel McCranie as postmaster at his Coffee Road home. He says it moved to William Smith and became Franklinville on July 7, 1828.[6] Ray City History gives March 27, 1827, creating a four-day conflict even among later accounts.[9]

The federal evidence is narrower:

  • The postal section of the 1827 Official Register of the United States, current to September 30, has no Lowndes Court-house or other Lowndes County office in its alphabetic southern list.[10]
  • The 1829 register directly lists "Franklinville, Ga." with "Wm Smith" and compensation of $9.06.[11]
  • The 1831 register continues the Franklinville-era federal evidence.[12]

Absence from the 1827 register does not prove the office never operated. A new office could have been omitted, short-lived, renamed, or outside the register's reporting cutoff. It does mean the exact March date and McCranie's postmastership should not be presented as verified fact. Franklinville under William Smith by September 1829 is directly proved.

The old USPS Postmaster Finder links all returned a 404 page during this research. Three identical failures triggered the anti-loop stop. No federal appointment record naming McCranie was recovered there.

Family and same-name separation

The strongest early published family sketch appeared in the Tifton Gazette on March 13, 1896. Writing under the name Bohemian, the author selected “old Uncle Daniel” as head of the clan and named six sons: Malcolm, Archibald, William, Daniel, John, and Niel. He also named two daughters, Mrs. S. G. Williams and Mrs. R. N. Parrish. The article described Daniel as the first Master Mason among the family's Berrien-area pioneers.[15]

The article was written about four decades after Daniel's reported death. It is valuable because it is close to living descendants, but it is still retrospective and gives no dates or mother-child proof. A modern memorial marker lists ten children: Duncan N., Mary J., Neil, John, Daniel, Malcolm, Nancy, Archibald, William B., and Elizabeth.[7-8] The 1896 and modern lists overlap but are not identical in form, so the complete child list remains derivative.

Same-name separation is essential. An August 1840 sheriff's notice expressly levied a horse belonging to "Daniel McCranie, jr." in Griffin & Dominy v. Archibald and Daniel McCranie.[16] That record proves a younger Daniel was legally active while the elder was alive. Consequently:

  • the 1844 unsuffixed tax row cannot be assigned to Daniel Sr.;
  • an 1843 Thomas County judgment in favor of an unsuffixed Daniel McCranie cannot be assigned confidently; and
  • later estates of men styled Daniel McCranie Sr. in Dodge or Berrien County are not this pioneer without an independent identity chain.[14,17]

Military and civic traditions

The Ray City account says McCranie served as a Montgomery County inferior-court justice in 1822 and that five sons supplied service or forage during the 1836 Brushy Creek campaign.[9] These are plausible leads, but the original commission and a primary roster tying the sons to those services were not found in the accessible online material. They remain unproved in this dossier.

The 1896 sketch's Masonic statement is likewise a contemporary-to-descendants tradition rather than a lodge-register extract.[15] It should be cited to that article, not repeated as an independently verified lodge fact.

Death and burial

Daniel was alive in the 1850 Lowndes census at age 78.[4] The modern Find a Grave memorial and granite marker give his death as June 17, 1854, identify Sarah McMillan as first wife, and place them in Wilkes Cemetery in Cook County.[7-8] The marker is plainly modern, not an original 1854 stone. No contemporary obituary, probate opening, estate sale, burial register, or original grave marker was located online.

The death date and cemetery are therefore probable memorial evidence. They fit the census chronology but are not independently proved.

What is proved, probable, and unresolved

Directly proved or strongly documented

  • Daniel McCranie's age progression and residence in Montgomery County in 1820 and Lowndes County in 1830, 1840, and 1850.
  • A second, younger Daniel McCranie was active by 1840.
  • Daniel Sr. held the three Wilkinson County tax tracts recorded in 1838.
  • Franklinville had a federal post office under William Smith by September 30, 1829.

Strong probable or probable

  • Daniel McCranie is the commissioner intended by "McCauly" in the printed 1825 act.
  • He lived broadly along the Coffee Road in the later Cook County area.
  • The modern memorial's 1772 birth year, 1854 death, and Wilkes Cemetery placement.
  • The broad family structure preserved in the 1896 clan sketch.

Unresolved or derivative only

  • Whether he was appointed postmaster in March 1827 and the exact date or name of that first office.
  • The precise Coffee Road land lot and house site.
  • Original proof of either marriage and a complete child list.
  • Brushy Creek service by his sons, the 1822 court commission, and the Masonic priority claim.
  • A probate-grade death date or estate record.

Sources

  1. 1820 U.S. census, Montgomery County, Georgia, Daniel McCraney, Ancestry collection 7734, record 1480768.
  2. 1830 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, Daniel McCraney, Ancestry collection 8058, record 1851074.
  3. 1840 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, Daniel McCranie, Ancestry collection 8057, record 1792696.
  4. 1850 U.S. census, Lowndes County, Georgia, Daniel McCranie household.
  5. “Act to lay out a new county from Irwin,” approved Dec. 24, 1825, reprinted in Daily Times-Enterprise (Thomasville), Nov. 15, 1920, p. 3, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  6. Folks Huxford, History of Lowndes County, Georgia, 1825-1941 (1941), county organization, Coffee Road settlement, and post-office sections; local OCR and page scans.
  7. Find a Grave memorial 49552372, Daniel McCranie Sr., Wilkes Cemetery; page and indexed by Ancestry collection 60525, record 17753965.
  8. Modern McCranie family marker photographs associated with the family's Find a Grave memorials. 9 and .txt (compiled secondary article).
  9. Official Register of the United States, Sept. 30, 1827, postal list, Internet Archive identifier sim_united-states-official-register-of-the-united-states_1827-09-30; OCR and DjVu XML.
  10. Official Register of the United States, Sept. 30, 1829, p. 146, entry "Franklinville, Ga. / Wm Smith / 9 06", Internet Archive identifier sim_united-states-official-register-of-the-united-states_1829-09-30; OCR and DjVu XML.
  11. Official Register of the United States, Sept. 30, 1831, Internet Archive identifier sim_united-states-official-register-of-the-united-states_1831-09-30; OCR.
  12. Lowndes County tax digest, 1838, Daniel McCranie Sr., Ancestry collection 1729.
  13. Lowndes County tax digest, 1844, unsuffixed Daniel McCranie, Ancestry collection 1729.
  14. Bohemian, “The McCranies,” Tifton Gazette, Mar. 13, 1896, p. 1, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  15. “Lowndes Sheriff's Sale,” Federal Union, Aug. 11, 1840, p. 4, Georgia Historic Newspapers.
  16. Thomas County sheriff's sale, Southern Recorder, Aug. 29, 1843, p. 3, Georgia Historic Newspapers, (unsuffixed Daniel McCranie creditor).

Preservation note

The project folder contains the search exports, record-detail JSON, preserved census, tax, newspaper, cemetery, web, and federal-register files, an evidence matrix, and a reproducible search ledger. Paywalled images are retained for offline research use and are not redistributed publicly.