Daniel Waldron was an American merchant and mill owner. He was the fifth and last generation of his family to hold the substantial Waldron estate in Dover, New Hampshire. With his bankruptcy, Dover realized a new life and economy as a center of textile manufacturing. Birth and inheritance Daniel was born November 9, 1775, the youngest son of Thomas Westbrook Waldron and Constance Davis. At the age of three he was designated one of two co heirs to the majority of the family property in downtown Dover, New Hampshire, passing over oldest brother William. "By the death of his brother Charles (in 1791) he became, under the terms of their father's will, sole owner of the bulk of the Dover property." Daniel's children in turn inherited some of the heirlooms of the family, including Father Rasle's strongbox, a collection of papers belonging to grandfather Richard Waldron (Secretary), and the family portraits. Family "Daniel married 5 June 1802, Olive Rindge Sheafe, who was born 24 May 1777 and who died Sept 1845". They had nine children, two of whom were in the Wilkes Expedition and enjoyed some favour in Washington, District of Columbia before one attained a consular position in Hong Kong. Another was a major in the U.S. Marines, and another a Catholic priest and principal of a college. Portsmouth At the death of his father the heirs were taken to Portsmouth, New Hampshire where Daniel remained until 1811. He was in business in Portsmouth, including overseas trade. Daniel and others made an insurance claim in 1804 after a ship Narcissa was "struck by a squall and took on water. Lost deckload of cattle and cargo ruined. Mate and two sailors drowned. Drifted forty days." Dover He returned to Dover on 11 November 1811. "Daniel lived in the old house" built by his father. In 1815 he became a Justice of the Peace for Strafford County, New Hampshire Waldron lands ideal for textile milling One of the enterprises that the Waldron name is not connected to is textile milling. Yet "[t]here were several advantageous physical conditions in Dover that made the goal of manufacturing cloth seem attainable. The town had water power, humidity in the atmosphere, pure water in the streams for bleaching, millsites in close proximity to the sea, an ample population, and a good transportation system in place. [Textile entrepreneurs] W&W (as Williams and Wendell came to be