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D.H. Mansfield Chronology.

1810, June 23: Daniel Hale Mansfield is born at Hope, in the District of Maine (then still part of Massachusetts). The tenth child of Jacob (1766-1836) and Charity Payson Mansfield
(1774-1839), Daniel would eventually become one of 11 Mansfield children to reach maturity. Growing up on the family farm, Daniel is early exposed to his fatherâ's active religious life.
Nicknamed "Chapel House," the Mansfield home is a hub of activity for the local Methodist society, which holds its meetings there.
1819: Methodist circuit preacher Henry True visits Chapel House, and likely influences young Daniel's spiritual development. Mansfield's obituary would later recount that Daniel
"gave evidence to his friends of a change of heart" at age nine.
1829: Mansfield experiences a second conversion under the influence of Benjamin Jones, another Methodist preacher stationed at Hope. Acting as Daniel's mentor, Jones formally
welcomes Daniel into the Methodist Episcopal Church, training him to be a local preacher, and tutoring him in English composition, rhetoric and theology.
1831: Setting aside his ministerial training for a season, Daniel sets out as an itinerant singing master for the first time. Subsequent musical travels would take him to an unknown
number of locations throughout New England, upstate New York, and the Mid-Atlantic over the next nine years. Apart from teaching singing schools, Mansfield's purpose for these
excursions (as stated in a later advertisement for The American Vocalist) is to gather tunes and acquaint himself with music on "a national level." Though specifics are unknown, it is
almost certain that Daniel first encountered some of the tunes he later included in the Vocalist during these forays into diverse sections of rural America.
1840: Still only a lay preacher, Mansfield is given joint charge of the divided Methodist society at Thomaston, Maine. Though his attempts to repair the strife within the society meet with
limited success, he remains in Thomaston for four more years, preaching in the town and other locations within the old Waldo Patent.
1845, June 5: Daniel marries Lucy Maria Fairbanks (1821-1854). The daughter of Major Abner Fairbanks, she is Daniel's first cousin, once removed. The couple would eventually have
three daughters, though only one would survive beyond the age of 22. Later that same year, Daniel is accepted as a probationary member of the Maine Methodist Conference, and is sent
to preach at Old Town, near Bangor. The Mansfields would remain in Old Town for two years.
1846, March 20: Daughter Helen is born, but dies less than six months later on September 13.
1847: Newly ordained as a Deacon, Mansfield is assigned to ministerial duties at Frankfort, under the tutelage of retired minister Joshua Hall, the unofficial spiritual leader of
Methodism in eastern Maine.
1848: The East Maine Methodist Conference is established, and assigns Daniel to preside over the church at Belfast. With successful stints at Old Town and Frankfort behind him,
Mansfield has established a solid reputation as an inspired evangelist and religious leader. At Belfast, Mansfield is again successful, initiating a revival in the town, and furthering his
reputation as "a very popular preacher." In November, the first announcements for The American Vocalist appear in newspapers in Bangor and Belfast, indicating that Daniel has
remained active in his musical endeavors, despite his increased ministerial responsibilities.
1849: Mansfield is ordained an elder. The second and final edition of The American Vocalist is published in November, with an addition of 171 tunes not included in the 1848 book.
Initially published by W.J. Reynolds of Boston, this edition would stay in print for another 25 years (and would see its publishing house change hands at least three times during the
process). The Vocalist would eventually become popular not only in New England, but also in the Canadian maritime provinces (where famed music historian and composer of
"Babylon is Fallen," W.E. Chute taught from it in his own first singing school), and as far west as Indiana and Illinois. Its continued sales would help support Mansfield's orphaned
daughters well into the 1870's.
1850: Mansfield is assigned to the "Brick Chapel," an established and somewhat wealthy congregation in Bangor, in what would be his final pastoral position. His work in Bangor would
be focused more on administration and fund-raising than preaching, and he accepts the calling somewhat reluctantly. Daughter Caroline Cushing Mansfield (1850-aft. 1900) is born, July
27. Caroline later married her cousin Alonzo Stanley Mansfield (1847-aft. 1910) in 1871, and was the mother of Harry Hale (b. 1873) and Maud Mansfield (b. 1875).
1852: Owing to his successes at Bangor, Mansfield is made an agent of the newly-established East Maine Conference Seminary at Bucksport; and raises over $25,000 to support it in his
first year of work. No longer tied to regular pastoral duties at a particular church, he briefly returns to the family farmstead at Hope with his wife. Third daughter, Helen Maria (18521877) is born, probably while the Mansfields are at Hope.
1853: Daniel and his family move to Warren, boarding at the home of Lermond Kelloch, a Baptist deacon.
1854: Daniel's wife Lucy Maria dies at Warren in February of "a rapid consumption." She is survived by her husband and two young daughters. Her tombstone bears the prominent
inscription "Little Helen's Mother," in reference to her youngest child, who was not yet two years old.
1855, February 25: Rev. Daniel H. Mansfield dies of a fever at Augusta, while lobbying for state support of the seminary; only one year after his wife's death. He leaves behind two
young daughters and an increasingly successful tunebook, and is mourned throughout the Methodist community in Maine. He is subsequently buried beside his wife Lucy, along with
other family members at Morey Hill Cemetery, near his birthplace at Hope. Now in disrepair, the lengthy epitaph on Mansfield's marker (written for him by S. Milligan) is only partially
legible. (See the previous page for a picture and copy of that epitaph.}

*Special thanks to David Warren Deacon, whose 1991 masters thesis, D.H. Mansfield and The American Vocalist was the source of much of the above biographical information.
Additional genealogical data taken from: Mansfield Genealogy - Descendants of Robert and Elizabeth Mansfield and Sons Andrew and Joseph who came to Lynn 1639-1640 (Geneva A. Daland & James S. Mansfield, 1980).