Day, Frederick S.

Born: 1819-07-06 New Jersey

Died: 1882-12-24 Chicago, Illinois

Frederick S. Day was a merchant, bank cashier, real estate investor, state representative, and Republican. In February 1849, he married Louisa W. Bostwick, with whom he eventually had two sons. In 1850, he worked as a merchant in La Salle County, Illinois and owned $1,500 in real estate. In June 1853, he became a cashier for the Bank of Peru in Peru, Illinois. Soon after, in 1854, he purchased hundreds of acres of public land in Whiteside and Bureau counties. His participation in local politics increased over time. In late-August 1854, he attended the first convention of the Republican Party in La Salle County. The next month, the party nominated him to run for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly, and, in the election of 1854, the voters of La Salle, Livingston, and Grundy counties elected him to the Illinois House of Representatives. He also served as a delegate for La Salle County at the Republican state convention that was held in Decatur, Illinois in 1860. By that time, he was living in Peru, Illinois, working as a merchant again, and had grown prosperous enough that he owned $50,000 in real and personal property.

Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1633-1850, 14 February 1849, (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2005); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), La Salle County, IL, 334; For an exhaustive list of Day's land purchases, search "Day Frederick S," https://www.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp; History of La Salle County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1886), 1:267; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 27 June 1853, 3:1; 2 January 1855, 2:3; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 12 May 1860, 2:3; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Peru, La Salle County, IL, 382; Gravestone, Rosehill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Chicago, IL.