Erastus Day, Jr., son of Erastus and Lucy Willard Day, was born October 15, 1808 at Otsego County, New York. He settled with his parents in Grenadier Island in the St. Lawrence River in 1812. He returned to Lima, New York in 1822 and remained there until December 1825, when he left Lima for Michigan, in company with Addison Chamberlin, Sylvania Taft, and a young physician who located in Rochester. The trip was made overland through Canada on a sleigh, via Detroit, to a point two miles northwet of Romeo: the steams and rivers were frozen, so that the incidents of spring or fall travel were not experienced; the party took possession of a log shanty, built the year previous by Captain Gad Chamberlin and his son, who visited the place in 1824. There they made their winter's home, played cards for the privilege of cooking johnny-cake, and so amused themselves until springtime, when they began to prepare for the coming of their families. Mr. Day, Sr. and his family arrived in June 1826, and lived for two months in the shanty erected by the Chamberlins.
(Notice McKay Shurtz peeking out from tombstone of Erastus' first wife Catherine)
No comments:
Post a Comment