During the ’70s there was no citizen of Denver who was more intimately associated with its business interests or held a position higher in the confidence of the people than did Mr. A. B. Daniels, and his death, which occurred April 8, 1881, was mourned as a public loss. His great business ability was recognized by all, and was the chief factor in his financial success; another, and scarcely less vital force in his success, was his boundless energy, the enterprise that no obstacle daunted, the industry that the hardest labor could not diminish.
A member of an old family of New York and himself a native of that state, Mr. Daniels was reared upon a farm there, but early in life went to New York City, where he embarked in business as a ship chandler. About 1865 he came west to Council Bluffs, Iowa, but after three years settled in Denver, which continued to be his home during his remaining years. For a time he was interested in the wholesale grocery business, as a member of the firm of Daniels & Brown. Later he assisted in the organization of the Colorado National Bank, of which he was vice-president until his death. He was interested in the real-estate business, and built a number of business blocks, among them the building occupied by the bank. He was also the head of the banking house of Daniels, Brown & Co., of Del Norte, known as the Bank of San Juan, which under his management gained a reputation as one of the strongest financial institutions in the west.
Like the majority of the early residents of Denver, Mr. Daniels held important interests in the cattle business. He was one of the first to buy and improve a ranch in the San Luis Valley and he also owned large tracts in Jefferson County. His business affairs received his entire attention, to the exclusion of public matters, but he did not forget the duty he owed to his country and kept himself posted upon the questions before the people. In politics he was a Democrat. His first residence in Denver stood on Curtis and Sixteenth streets, where is now the Tabor opera house, and afterward he moved to Court place and Fourteenth street, where he died.
In Council Bluffs, Iowa, Mr. Daniels married Hattie Ramsen, who was born in St. Catharines, Canada, her father having come there from Scotland, and her mother from England. She died in 1879, when thirty-five years of age. Two of her children, Olive E. and George Sheedy, died in childhood, and the only survivor is A. B., Jr.
Source: Portrait and biographical record of Denver and vicinity, Colorado : containing portraits and biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present : together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States.. Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1898.