My Genealogy Hound

SIDNEY DAY.
Among the residents of Creston formerly identified with active business interests but now living retired is numbered Sidney Day, whose birth occurred in Knox county, Illinois, in 1853. His father, Darwin Day, was born in Syracuse, New York, and died March 17, 1895, in his eighty-seventh year. He was descended from English ancestry and from Revolutionary stock, representatives of the name serving in defense of the colonists’ cause in the war for independence. He devoted his life to farming, and following his marriage he removed from New York to Illinois with his bride, settling in Knox county, where he purchased land and won prosperity as a farmer and stockfeeder. He held membership in the Christian church, in which he served as an officer and in which he frequently preached. His life was ever upright and honorable and the good qualities which he displayed brought him the warm friendship and regard of those with whom business or social relations brought him in contact. He gave his political endorsement to the whig party until its dissolution, when he joined the ranks of the new republican party. His wife, Mrs. Narcissa (Fuquay) Day, was born in Kentucky and died September 28, 1873, at the age of fifty-two years, eleven months and thirteen days. She, too, was a devoted member of the Christian church.

In their family were the following children: David, who served his country in the Civil war but is now deceased; John, a retired farmer of Orleans, Nebraska; Norman, who carries on agricultural pursuits in Brookfield, Missouri; Sidney, of this review; Julia, deceased; Daniel, a carpenter of Knox county, Illinois; and Emma Day, who became the wife of John Spurgeon, a farmer of Warren county, Iowa, and passed away in 1906. Having lost his first wife, the father was again married but had no children by the second union.

The boyhood days of Sidney Day were passed in a manner not unlike that of most youths of that period. He attended the country schools and always carried on general agricultural pursuits, beginning in early boyhood by aiding in the work of the farm. In 1882 he arrived in Union county, settling in Spaulding township, where he purchased land. For almost twenty years thereafter he carried on farm work, bringing his fields under a high state of cultivation and following advanced methods of agriculture.

He retired from the farm in 1901 to take up his abode in Creston, where he is now living.

In 1878 Mr. Day was married, the lady of his choice being Miss Cornelia Beebe, who was born in LaSalle county, Illinois, in 1860, and is a daughter of Schuyler and Elizabeth Beebe. Her father had followed farming prior to the Civil war but while serving his country in defense of the Union he lost an arm in battle and was thus incapacitated for further service along agricultural lines. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Day have been born a son and daughter: Arthur, who is now a clerk in the office of the superintendent of the Union Pacific Railroad in Kansas City, Missouri; and May, at home. Mrs. Day belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Day votes with the republican party and has held some local township offices but his time and energies have chiefly been given to his business, in which connection he has formed his plans readily and has executed them with determination and dispatch. His close application and his excellent management have brought to him the degree of prosperity which he is now enjoying.