Joseph W Day

DAY INLAY

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/19/2010 at 22:36:36

Woodbury County History 1984

Day-Inlay Families
By William E Day

Joseph W Day (1844-1914) and his wife, Mary E (1850-1941) came to Woodbury County form Indiana. They homesteaded 160 acres, six miles south of Moville, Iowa. They reared a family of three daughters (Olive Prichard, Lottie McDermott, Bess Wickstrom), and four sons (Matt, Elmer, Howard, Arthur). Next to the Day farm moved George E Inlay (1842-1910) and Esther A Inlay (1848-1922). These homesteaders were from New York. In their family were seven daughters (Atla Baden, Florence Day, Josephine Talbot, Frances Howard, Harriet Crouch, Belle Smeaton, Erline Reynolds), and three sons (Darwin, Frank, Ed).

Elmer Ofaf Day courted Erma Inlay, for a while, and then in 1897, married her cousin from the neighboring farm. Florece, E O and Florence Day lost two sons in infancy, and reared two children, Esther and Winfred E. E O made a great deal of money buying and selling farmland in the Moville and Sioux City areas. He and Florence lived most of their lives in Morningside, where they were very active in Grace Methodist Church. Florence gained some local fame as a painter; one of her subjects was the famous pacer, Dan Patch. At their house the day started with a breakfast prayer (on the knees by a chair) and card playing was considered quite sinful. Their daughter, Esther, married Paul Thompson and moved to Washington State.

Winfred attended Morningside College (playing football when the Maroons met Notre Dame); and while there, met a fellow student, Franceska Croot (daughter of William and Mary Croot). They were married June 23, 1925. Winfred, better known as Red, sold real estate; Fran was active in the church and Girl Scouting. They, too, lived in Morningside, and Fran, like her mother-in-law, did some painting. Their three children ae Jacqueline, a teacher, who married David Grindberg, and has three daughters: Christine Haist, Susan, and Nancy; William E, a lawyer, who married Shirley Lindley, a teacher, and has Debra, Sue Samayoa, and David; (Bill remarried Joanne Rickord, a teacher); and Margaret, a counselor and artist, who married Roger Counts, has has children: Cliff and Cathy, who has one daughter). At this time Jackie is teaching in Sioux City, and Bill is practicing law in an office about two blocks from his grandparents’ old Morningside address. Their mother, Fran, died in 1964 in Colorado Springs, where she and Red had lived since 1954.

Retired from restaurant management and real estate selling, ‘Red’ at 83 (born in 1900), still plays golf and lives comfortably with his second wife, Mabel (who is a retired junior high librarian). The Day grandchildren, now all grown, have fond memories of Grandpa Red’s buttermilk pancakes and barbequed chicken. Teaching seems to run through theDay females; Florence, Franceska, Jackie, Christine, Susan, Nancy and Sue Samayoa (is preparing for her teaching certificate) all were or are in the field of education. Artistic talent is spread more sparingly with Florence, Franceska, Margaret, and Sue Day Samayoa all involved in painting. Margaret Day Counts has gained national recognition for original needlepoint patterns, as well as her painting.

Although in this Day line there are eight great-great-grandchildren of Joseph W, there is so far, only one great-great-great-grandchild, and no sixth generation child yet, bearing the Day name.