Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/784

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

in Danville, Virginia, where he has since been continuously in medical and surgical I'ractice, honored, esteemed and prosperous.

Dr. Day is a descendant of James Day, whose will was proved January 9, 1700. He married Mary Bland, daughter of Thomas jind Mary (Bennett) Bland, of London, and Mary (Bennett) Bland, after the death of her first husband, married (second) Luke Cropley. Children of James and Mary (Bland) Day: Elizabeth, married Nathaniel Ridley ; James, of further mention ; Thomas, William. James Day, whose will was proved in 1725, married and was the father of two sons: James, married Martha. chil- dren, Martha and Mary ; and Thomas, of further mention. Thomas Day, whose will was proved October 3, 1752, married and was the father of two sons, Thomas, mar- ried and was the father of three children : James Bennett, Mary, Juliana ; and John, of further mention. John Day. whose will was proved in 1776, leaves a coat-of-arms to his son. Davis Day. a planter of Day's Neck, on the James river. Isle of Wight count}-, ^Mrginia. the name originating with the ad- vent of the Day family in that section. His will was proved November 3. 1817. Davis Day married Priscilla Blount, of Southamp- ton county, Virginia, and had issue : Wil- liam Henry Bennett, of whom further ; Ava- rilla ; Francis ; Virginia, married Colonel Willis H. Woodden ; John II., married Mary Meadow, of Nansemond county. Virginia, children: Richard Henry Blount and Vir- ginia; Richard H. B. Day, married Ida Wood, of Albemarle, Virginia, children : Ida and Leslie ; Virginia, married Dr. Isaac White, of Virginia, surgeon in Confederate army, and resided, after the war, at Shaws- ville, Virginia, children : John D.. married a Miss Murray, of Lynchburg. Virginia, and George W.

On the maternal side Dr. Day is a grand- son of William O. Chilton, born in Fauquier county, Virginia, a farmer, and his wife, Sarah Powell, of Loudoun county ; children : William. John. Elizabeth, Phoebe Scott and Ellen.

William Henry Bennett Day, son of Davis and Priscilla (Blount) Day, was born in Isle of Wight county, Virginia, March 25. 1802. died March 27. 1867. He was a plantation owner near Smithfield, Virginia, a lawyer of high repute, and during the war 1861- 1864. a member of the Virginia state senate. He married (first) Phoebe Scott Chilton,

daughter of William O. and Sarah (Powell) Chilton ; she died in 1841, aged twenty-three years, leaving an only child, William Chil- ton, of further mention. He married (sec- ond) Amanda Fitzgerald Chambliss, of Vir- ginia, and had issue : Colonel Charles Fen- ton Day, deceased, married Virginia Jordan, children: Charles F., deceased; Lucy C, married United States Senator Thomas S. Martin, left two children: Lucy D. and Thomas S. Jr. ; Grace R.. married Henry Ralston. Henry Mason Day, deceased, for- merly a wholesale merchant of New York City, his widow, Emily D. Day, now resid- ing at No. 5 West Seventy-fifth street in that city; children of Henry Mason and Emily D. Day: Georgie W., Emily. Lucile. Mason and Garnett.

Dr. William Chilton Day, only child of William Plenry Bennett Day and his first wife. Phoebe Scott (Chilton) Day, was born at Smithfield, Isle of Wight county, \'ir- ginia. June 6. 1841. He attended Smithfield Academy, took the academic course at the University of Virginia, then entered the medical department, but before graduation entered the Confederate army ; was ordered from the field to the Chimbonzo Hospital in Richmond, put on night duty attending the lectures at the Medical College of Virginia during days, and was graduated Doctor of Aledicine in March, 1864. Immediately after graduation he went before the army board of examiners, and after passing the required examination was appointed assistant sur- geon. Confederate States army, and was ordered to join the hospital department of the army of Southwestern Virginia and Eastern Tennessee, serving as assistant medical director of that department of the Confederate army. Prior to his college course. Dr. Day had been a cavalryman, en- listing in April, 1861, in Prince George Cav- alry, later Company F, Thirteenth Regi- ment, Virginia Cavalry (General J. E. B. Stuart's division). He was taken prisoner, December 13. 1864. together with seven other surgeons, in Bristol. Tennessee, by General Stoneman. and after his release continued his surgical work in the Confederate army.

.\fter the war ended Dr. Day located and practiced his profession at Hicksford (now Emporia), Virginia, continuing five years. He then decided upon a complete change of location, selecting St. Louis, Missouri, as his scene of activity and there practiced two vears. He then returned to Virginia, asso-