James D. McDaniel (1815-1899) and John McDaniel (1808-1882) were brothers born in Madison County Kentucky to Stacy and Sally Lamb McDaniel who were married in Orange County Virginia in 1799. Stacy was said to have been born in Ireland. 

They were early settlers in Shelby County Tennessee prior to the establishment of Memphis. John McDaniel and his family, James D. McDaniel, and their sister, Louisa McDaniel Payne and her family moved to Greene County in 1839. They appear on the 1840 Census for Greene County Arkansas.