Yolo County
Biographies
CHARLES G. DAY
Numbered among the pioneers of
California, Charles G. Day is still remembered as a citizen of long standing of
Yolo county and a man of worth and ability in the
upbuilding and development of the natural resources of this section. He was a
native of Kentucky, his birth having occurred in the vicinity of Crab Orchard,
where he made his home during boyhood, receiving a limited education among the
primitive surroundings of the south. He removed to Gentry county,
Mo., and thence crossed the plains in 1849 at the age of eighteen years. He
traveled by ox-teams to California and at once went to the mines, but a short
time afterward went to Sacramento valley and engaged in cutting hay.
Subsequently he returned east via the Isthmus of Panama, and in 1855 once more
made the trip across the plains, bringing with him a herd of cattle. He settled
in Sonoma county, near Santa Rosa, where he made his home until the spring of
1856, when he returned east by the Isthmus, and on the 6th of March
of that year was united in marriage with Pemmelia
Jones, a native of Zanesville, Ohio, and a resident of Gentry county, Mo.
In 1857 Mr. Day and his wife came
across the plains via Fort Hall, bringing a band of cattle, and although there
were but six people in their company they came through safely and located in
Sonoma county. Mr. Day purchasing a portion of the
Brockman tract. Two years later he removed to Yolo county,
where he bought a squatter’s right to one hundred and sixty acres, the property
now owned by his widow, and forming the nucleus of the fortune which he built
up in later years. He had large bands of cattle and stock, and as his neighbors
wanted to dispose of their land he traded a part of his stock for their
property, and thus acquired about two thousand acres about three miles
southwest of Woodland. He became very prominent in public affairs taking an
interest in all movements calculated to advance the general welfare of the
community. He was a director in the Bank of Woodland, a director and
vice-president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, and was also interested in
the Bank of Yolo. He was always liberal with the means with which his efforts
had been blessed in his adopted state and gave substantial evidence of his
interest in the moral and educational features of the community, assisting
materially in the building of the churches and schools, and especially
Hesperian College. He was a Mason of high degree, being associated with the
chapter and commandery, and politically adhered to the principles of the
Republican party. He belonged to the Christian Church. His death occurred April
15, 1900.
Mrs. Day’s father, Jacob Jones, a
native of Virginia became an early settler of Ohio, and thence removed to
Gentry county, Mo., and engaged as a farmer and
stockman. He became an influential man in that section, serving as county judge
and was also prominent in other public affairs. His death occurred at the age
of ninety-three years, his wife, formerly Phoebe Fleming, a native of
Pennsylvania, having passed away in Ohio when Mrs. Day was an infant. Of this
union there were four children, of whom three are living. Mr. Jones married
later Deborah Miller, a native of Pennsylvania, and she survived to the advanced
age of ninety-two years. They became the parents of ten children. Mrs. Day was
the youngest of the four children born to her father by his first marriage and
in Missouri she was reared to womanhood, receiving her education in the common
schools of that state. Born of her union with Mr. Day are three living
children, namely: Eugenia E., a resident of San Francisco, Cal.; John M., a
banker of Woodland; and Clarence F., engaged in farming the old homestead. The
children are all graduates of Hesperian College. Mrs. Day is a devoted member
of the Christian Church and is a woman of culture and refinement.
Transcribed
By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History
of the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J.
M. Guinn, Page 543. The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago,
1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden
Nugget Library's Yolo County Biographies