“Jimmy Dartis was in the city on Saturday for the first time in several months. Jimmy is Gallatin County’s miser. He is supposed to be worth $30,000, and it is popularly believed that a great deal of money is hidden on his ranch. Jimmy is about as poorly clad as a man can be in this climate and bears the appearance of just eating enough to keep him alive. He was never known to do a generous deed in his life and his presence on earth affords an excellent example of what the love of money will do.” - From the Fergus County Argus, March 22, 1894
In 1898, Sheriff Fransham bought the frozen body of Jimmy Dartis into town from his ranch fifteen miles outside of Bozeman, Montana. Jimmy Dartis (James E. Daughters) was born about 1828 a mile or two west of Delmar.
Well, anytime someone dies (with money) in a faraway place, there is always a lawyer about who will find a relative or two. In this case Jay Williams of Salisbury, Maryland made the trip personally to Montana to file papers for his clients, William E. Daughters, Ellen Young, Katherine Maddox, Alonzo B. Collins, and Samuel J. Collins. Eventually, after another 5 years, the estate was settled in their favor. The paperwork for the estate was extensive, with a number of people giving depositions for the heirs including Elijah Freeny, William L. Sirman, and E. E. Jackson.
Jimmy Dartis was James Daughters. As stated in the depositions, the family was illiterate and accepted the phonetic spelling of their names, so Darters and Dartis were frequent variations of the name Daughters. In the depositions it was stated that Jimmy was the son of Samuel Daughters. Samuel lived outside of Delmar in Somerset County (later Wicomico County). He had children Issiah, Hiram, James, Gillis, Nancy, Betsy and Sallie. E. E. Jackson said in his disposition, “I do not know how they spelled their names, but I know how I used to spell their names. I was a merchant in Delmar in 1859 to 1863 and kept an account with his brother Issiah Daughters. I used to spell his name Daughters. That was not from what they told me but was the way I thought the name ought to be spelled. They were all very illiterate people.“
Jimmy was generally described as a tramp, more in love with money then his appearance. He would hang on to every cent he could get and beg clothing and food from people instead of buying them. He had spells of leaving the farm and traveling. He had been to Europe, he worked on oyster boats, he supposedly joined the Confederate army and after a spell decided to switch to the Union army.
One of the stories given in the depositions by Elijah Morris was, “Once before making a trip west he buried his money by the side of a cross fence and while he was gone his father moved the fence, cleaned up the fence row, and when Jimmy came back, his mark was gone and he could not find his money and I do not know whether he ever did find his money.”
A short family tree on the Daughters/Darters family which just as often is recorded as Darters: Hudson Daughters (1768-1840), a carpenter from New Castle County, Delaware moved to Maryland. He was employed by John Turner at Synepuxent Beach (today’s Ocean City). He married John Turner’s daughter, Sallie (Sarah) Turner (1754-1854). They moved to Sussex County between Seaford and Concord. They had nine children: Betsy, Hiram, James, Gillis, Samuel, Randolph, Abi, Whitefield, and Calvin.
Samuel Daughters (1780-before 1870) was in the War of 1812 and married Lottie Lingo in 1818. She was the daughter of Joshua Lingo. Samuel and Lottie lived on the Lingo Farm west of Delmar, Maryland. She would die about 1840. He continued living on the farm until 1846, when he moved to Salisbury, Maryland. They had children: Hiram, Issiah (Isaiah), Betsey, Nancy, Sallie (Sarah), Gillis, and James. Samuel married a second time to Harriet Vickers from Barren Creek, Maryland (1799-1885).
Hiram died in 1841 when he was 17 of dropsy. Issiah, who married Eleanor Venables, died without children. Betsy married Calvin Venables and they had two children: Samuel, who went to war and died, and Ellen, who married John M. Young and moved to Baltimore. Nancy married Josiah C. Collins in 1847, and they had two sons, Alonzo B. Collins and Samuel Collins. Sallie (Sarah) married Thomas F. Messick in 1846. They had a daughter, Katherine, who married Sidney Maddox and they moved to Texas. Katherine’s parents died young and she lived with her Uncle Issiah. Gillis J. Daughters (1829-1885) married Mary (1832-) and had a son, William E. Daughters. Finally, James (Jimmy) Daughters (1828- 1899) moved to Montana and never married.