Yolo County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


RUSSELL DAY


RUSSELL DAY, a Yolo viticulturist, was born April 27, 1817, in Auburn, New York, 
a son of Lot Day.  The father, a native of New Jersey and a tanner by trade, 
moved to Hamilton County, Ohio, where Cincinnati now stands, in 1817; in 1820 to 
Wayne County, Indiana; in 1830 to St. Joseph County, same State, where in 1842 
he was elected sheriff of the county and served two terms, or a total of four 
years.  During his second term he was appointed State Marshal for the northern 
part of the State.  In 1847 he was elected State Senator by his district, and he 
served two years; and in 1850 he came across the plains to California.  He was a 
resident of Stockton until 1860, when he moved to Woodland and remained there 
among his children until the fall of 1872; then, at the age of eighteen years, 
he went to Nevada and located a claim twenty-five miles south of Halleck�s 
Station; but his health failed and he died there in March, 1874, at the age of 
eighty-three years.  His remains were brought back to Woodland and laid at rest 
in the cemetery there.  He had always been a prominent man in political circles, 
and energetic in all of his business relations.
Mr. Russell Day was brought up to the tanner�s trade and followed the same until 
1840, when he entered the brick trade and began contracting for buildings, and 
continued in the same until 1851.  He then was engaged by the Chicago & 
Springfield Railroad Company, to superintend the construction of a branch road 
running from Chicago to Springfield, and was engaged therein until 1852.  April 
20, 1853, he left South Bend, Indiana, for California, and crossed the plains 
with his father, who had returned from California.  He located his present 
property September 10, 1853, taking the land from the Government, and he has 
been a resident thereon until the present.  He converted the wild and 
desert-like place to the neat, attractive and fertile farm that it now is.  He 
also has run a fine dairy, but is now turning his attention more especially to 
the raising of wine grapes, and is a stockholder in the Yolo Winery.  His farm 
is now all a vineyard.  It is situated thirty miles southeast of Woodland, a 
good gravel road existing between his vineyard and the town.  He is a member of 
Woodland Lodge, No. 111, I.O.O.F., and is next to the oldest member of this 
order; he is also a member of the Encampment.  He once visited the spot where 
Woodland is now located with the view of taking a portion of it for a home, but 
he gave it up and located where he now resides.
For his wife Mr. Day married Miss Abia Russell, a native of the State of New 
York.  Their children have been:  Lot, who was born December 18, 1875 and is now 
deceased; Russell T., born June 26, 1881.
 
Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 
1891  
Transcribed by:  Betty Wilson  August 2004