Daniel Lewis Cheatham was born on September 6, 1849, in Georgia to Arthur and Asenath Cheatham. His father was a farmer who owned $11,800 of real estate and $19,300 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Jefferson County, Georgia, and he earned a medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1874.
He married Frances Windsor around 1877, and they had at least two children: Frank, born around 1891; and Louise, born around 1893. He lived in Sandersville, Georgia, and earned a living as a doctor. He served three terms as mayor in the early 1900s. He died from a “stroke of paralysis” in Sandersville on January 25, 1909.