It may have been his second marriage, for John Robin McDaniel Irby would later graduate from the University of Virginia and publish scientific papers.
[5] However, J. R. McDaniel was not one of Lynchburg's major slave traders like William Norvell, Chiswell Dabney, George Whitlocke, William Radford and John H. Tyree in the city's early years, and later consolidators (sending slaves to the Deep South) George Davis, M. Hart, E. Myers and Seth Woodroof.
[6] McDaniel was a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason[7] who served as the Grand Master of Masons in Virginia from 1860-1861.
During the Civil War, McDaniel received a contract to supply salt to Confederate forces from Saltville, Virginia, which the railroad transported.
In 1877, he ran for the part-time position of delegate to the Virginia General Assembly representing Lynchburg, after controversial election results the previous year were thrown out by Judge James Garland after the ballots were stolen.