Born in Canton, Ohio. He established the John Danner Manufacturing Company in 1874. Yale College ordered a bookcase in 1877. He won a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition the next year. "Several orders from Czarist Russia, kept the company busy through the panic of 1893." In 1903, a fire destroyed the entire factory. The factory was rebuilt and ran for another 13 years. In 1916, the Gillian Mfg. Company purchased the John Danner Manufacturing Company.