Daniel Whitaker Marquart
b. 16 February 1848, Marion Township, Allen County, Indiana, to Frederick (1820–1886) and Anna Marie (Whitaker) Marquart
d. 11 September 1900, Louisville, Kentucky

m. 18 March 1868, Fontanelle, Adair County, Iowa
Mary Etta Miller
b. 7 August 1847, Columbiana County, Ohio
d. 11 June 1932, Norman, Cleveland County, Oklahoma

Children with Mary Etta Miller:

• Gertrude Eve (1870–1931)
• Vide Alma (1872–1956)
• Webb E. (1875–1880)

Daniel was nearly four months old when his mother died in June 1848, and he was raised by his two grandmothers. He enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 16 by falsifying his age and served during the Civil War in Company H, 91st Regiment, Indiana Infantry. He was 5 feet 3/4 inches tall when he enlisted and had black eyes, brown hair, and dark complexion.

In 1866, Daniel and his father left Allen County Indiana to join his uncle Samuel Marquart in Fontanelle, Adair County, Iowa, where Daniel married Mary Etta Miller, who was the sister of Daniel’s Uncle Samuel’s wife.

A biography in an 1884 history of Guthrie and Adair counties, Iowa, states that Daniel “followed school teaching and various other occupations for several years, after which he assisted his father in the post office.” His father was postmaster from 1868 to 1870 and from 1872 to 1882. Daniel then operated a general merchandise store until he moved to Greenfield in January 1878 to serve as Adair County auditor from 1877 to 1883.

When President Harrison declared the Oklahoma Indian Territory open for settlement in 1889, Daniel, with his uncle, Samuel Marquart, and cousins, Oren and Eugene, were in the crowd waiting to enter at noon. Eugene developed a terrible thirst and patronized a man who was selling water from barrels on his wagon at twenty-five cents per cup. After several cups, the others talked Eugene out of his thirst.

In October 1889, D. W., then postmaster, was unanimously elected mayor of Norman, Oklahoma. In February 1898, D. W. and his Uncle Samuel, along with ten other men,
organized a party to go to the Klondike gold fields. They undertook to get through to Dawson by way of White Horse Pass, but snows in the mountains proved too great an obstacle, and they were forced to return without reaching the gold fields.

While visiting a doctor in Louisville, Kentucky, in September 1900, D. W. Marquart died, not having reached the age of fifty-three, but having held many positions of honor during his short life span.

Submitted by:
Virgil V. Marquart
Fort Wayne IN