Pastor of First Baptist Church Dublin, Georgia 1835-1839

David Gonto Daniell was sent to Atlanta by the State Baptist Convention in 1847 as “a missionary to those sitting in darkness.”

Atlanta was then a town of 1,000 people, most of whom were laborers. Soon after his arrival the Rev. Daniell gathered around him a group of followers. Being without a church, the first converts were baptized in a pool owned by a Methodist brother.  The Reverend Daniell believed firmly in cooperation between denominations.  On January 1, 1848, the First Baptist of Atlanta, Georgia, consisting of seventeen members was organized with the Reverend D. G. Daniell progressing from missionary to pastor. Soon afterwards a lot was purchased at Forsyth and Walton Streets. The church, a one room wooden structure was paid for in his first two years as pastor.  Mrs. Daniell and the children were among the first members a year after his arrival. This, the first pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, was born in Onslow County, North Carolina, on May 14, 1808, the son of George W. Daniell and Mary Gonto.  He was descended paternally from Robert Daniell, a colonial governor of South Carolina, and Robert Howe, a general of the American Revolution.

His boyhood days were spent in Laurens County, Georgia, he having moved with his family from North Carolina at the age of one.  The tasks of his maturing years consisted mostly of farm work and neighborhood schooling.

When he became of age, the boy left the farm for Savannah.  There in 1829, he became a member of the city police force.  It was while on duty, patrolling his “beat,” that he passed a cottage and heard the group within singing, “Did Christ O’er Sinners Weep.”  This incident brought about his conversion.

The same year on July 23, he married Mrs. Mary J. (Garnett) Bettison.  They were baptized at the same time in January 1833, by the Reverend W. O. Wyer, pastor of the Savannah Baptist Church.

Two years later, young Daniell was ordained by the Bethany Baptist Church in Washington County.  The young couple immediately decided against returning to Savannah, casting eyes toward the smaller settlements of southeastern, Georgia.

The first church to call the newly ordained minister was the Buckeye Baptist Church in Laurens County.  While there, Pastor Daniell was charged also with a church in Washington County, with the Bethlehem Baptist Church in Laurens County, and with the church in Dublin where he lived with his family.  A forty-mile horseback ride on his faithful old white horse, Corbon, was necessary to meet these four churches. Life was hard and hours long in those first days.

On a Sunday afternoon in 1839 the Powellton Baptist Church, requested the Reverend Daniell to preach.  They were quite impressed by his gentle and thoughtful expression, easy and unaffected manner, and above all, by his “soundness in doctrine.”  He was called to the church and accepted after much deliberation and prayer.  The Mount Zion Church, only six miles away, was his only other pastorate.  This was a splendid change for the Daniell family, because of the educational advantages for the children. Both new churches were prominent ones and far more conveniently located.

For a year or so Pastor Daniell studied Greek with the Reverend J. S. Ingraham.  He felt very keenly his lack of educational opportunities and attempted to remedy the situation whenever possible.

The Executive Committee of The Georgia Baptist Convention then commissioned the promising young preacher to travel about the mission fields in Montgomery County.  To do this he resigned the Powellton Church in 1845.  Mrs. Daniell and the children were left behind so that the latter might continue their school work.  It was two years later that the entire family went to Atlanta to lay the foundation stones for a new Baptist church.