Daniel Gookin was born around 1822 in Hollis, Maine, to John and Elizabeth Gookin. He married Betsey H. Dole on December 4, 1847, and they had at least three children: Charles, born around 1853; Hellen, born around 1855; and Arabella, born around 1857. They lived in Portland, Maine, and Gookin worked as a carriage maker. By 1860, he owned $200 of personal property.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 18, 1862, and mustered in as a corporal in Company B of the 17^th Maine Infantry later that day. He eventually earned a promotion to sergeant. His regiment took part in the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of the Wilderness, and the siege of Petersburg. He was wounded at Petersburg on June 16, 1864, and he mustered out on December 15, 1864.

 

Gookin returned to Portland after the war, and by 1870, he owned $1,000 of personal property. He applied for a federal pension in July 1873 and eventually secured one. He moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1870s, and he died there of hydronephrosis on May 20, 1886.

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