Daniel Pennie was born in Kinross-shire, Scotland in 1832. He immigrated to the United States in 1851, at age 19, changing the spelling of his last name from Penny to Pennie. Initially stopping in Connecticut, he settled in White County, Illinois, and became a stone mason. He then sent for his family and sweetheart, and they joined him in Illinois in 1853; he married that year. In 1858 the family moved to Richland County, Wisconsin; they then moved just west of St. Cloud, Minnesota, in what is now Waite Park. Once the concurrent Dakota War and Civil War subsided, the Pennies relocated further west, to Pope County and homesteaded land in what was to become Section 12 of Leven Township in 1865. He helped organize the boundaries within the county the following year, and assisted when the county seat was moved from Gilchrist Township to Glenwood. He named Leven Township and Lake Leven after Loch Leven in his native Scotland. Pennie became a widely respected citizen of Pope County. Politically, he was a Republican, and held a number of local and county offices. He became an elder of the United Presbyterian Church, and wrote poetry that was published in regional literary journals. Pennie had little skill at farming, leaving those tasks to his extended family so he could focus on working as a mason in the local region. At one point he desired to move the family once more, following work to Montana, but his wife insisted that they stay in Minnesota. He and his wife had seven children; he died in 1917 at age 85.