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Show ABHAHAM DAY Born ••• September 24, 1817 Died ••• ~pr:l 28, 1900 The fam ~ ly name of Day is derived frorr the River Dee in "ales. ~ ome·vhe ... e along the banks of this river th8re lived a amily who acq~treJ the name of Dee in "honor, no d~ubt, of this stream and th~ir associations with itQ The custom of taktng a surname from some body of ·7ater, an island, or beach was very frequently done in the old countries and many or th e names of today were brought to America in that way. In this case, however, the D~e family enig r ate~ to England, and in course o-f"' time the name 11as changed to Dayo In 1634 ~obert Day came to the New r orld and settled at Hartfort, Connecticut, and thus the name Day has its beginning on this continent. Sut strange to say the cycle of time does not present any infor~ation concerning his posterity for a period of nearly two hundred years, and t h en the long search for ancestors was finally rewarded. On the church records of - -indhall, i!indham County, Vermont the name of ~braham Day and Hannah Sawyer Day and their six children were discovered . A. short life story of the youngest of their :amily, ~braham, Junior, follows: 'Yhen .\braham, Junj or, 1Nas one year old his father died, and here again ve are denied the urivilege of recordin g the interesting years of his childhood and youth . Years that always give background and color to the picture of the future~ Twenty years later his name reappears upon the Windhall County official files, along Nith that of his bride ~lmira Buckley, where they married . The exact date, however, is unknown. Another interval occurs and all trace of them is lost in the rushin? stream of time, until ~e find them living in a little village, called Montrose, Illinois, about three miles f rom Nauvoo. 1hey had joined tlJe Church of Jesus ·Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and had, no doubt, suffered the terrible persecutions and shameful injustices heaped upon the ~ormon people in that and other states. When the Saints were finally driven from their h c~ es into the wilderness, they were amon g the outcasts, and when the pilgrimage to the Rocky I:ountaiEs be ~ an in 1846, Abraha::n and famtly were among the first to leave that hostile, mob-ridden regionq In fact, ~braham was chosen as a captain of one division of the train of wagons moving out over the plains to the Westo Then ca~e the call of the famous furman Battalion at ~t~ Pis , ah and Council Bluffs . They had traveled less than three hundred wiles on their way when t h is memorable event took place~ |
