Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/381

 More About Astorians 353 corporal in the Minute Men from Northampton County; one served in the 5th Virginia Regiment from Culpepper County ; 21 and the same one, or possibly a third John Day, was a private in the Virginia Continental line, for which service he received two hundred acres of land in Ken- tucky. 22 His warrant was issued February 11, 1784, and was later assigned to Henry Banks. John Day was the son of Ambrose Day of Culpepper County, Virginia. He had a brother, Lewis, and there was a Lewis Day who had a plantation at Limestone (now Maysville), Kentucky, in 1797. 23 This town was a ren- dezvous for Daniel Boone and other famous frontiersmen. I like to think that the John Day, who received the military grant of land in Kentucky, was our John Day. It is very likely that he was considerably older than forty years when he joined the expedition at the Nodaway river, and was therefore probably old enough to serve in the Revolutionary War. It is quite possible that he met Daniel Boone in Kentucky, after the latter was plan- ning to go to Missouri, and decided to join him. On March 2, 1798, John Day was in St. Louis peti- tioning the Spanish Lieutenant Governor to grant him "two hundred and forty arpens of land on a river south of the Missouri." He stated that he wished to use this land for a habitation (plantation). 24 In passing I might say that just about this time the Spanish Governor had invited the immigration of Americans to Upper Louisi- ana, and had promised them concessions of land. In addition to this concession of two hundred and forty arpens Day apparently acquired another concession of seven hundred arpens from the Spanish Government on the "Waters of Point Labaddie Creek," County of St. 21 Virginia State Library. Ninth Report, p. 88. 22 Yearbook of the Society, Sons of Revolution, Kentucky. Lexington, 1913, p. 211. 2z William and Mary Quarterly, 2d ser., vol. 1, p. 153. ^Original petition of John Dey (Day) to Lieutenant-Governor Upper Louisiana. Mo. Hist. Soc. MSS.