Gilbert, Frank T. "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland, OR: Print & Lithographing House of A. G. Walling, 1882. p. a11. DR. J. H. DAY A resident of Walla Walla and owner of Day's block corner of Main and Third streets, and of the drug store on Main between First and Second streets, is one of those who came to this valley without means and has accumulated a fortune. He was sixty-six years of age on the 20th of April, 1882, has retired from practice in his profession, and enjoys the result of life's labors, which have given him fortune, friends, and the esteem of those who know him. What more can a reasonable man ask for, unless it be a sip from the fount of endless youth? And this reminds the writer that he seems to cherish no lingering regrets because of his failure to enter the matrimonial estate. In "Old Virginia," in that state that Americans had come to remember as the mother of Presidents, there is a beautiful little valley among her mountains if Tazewell county that is called Burk's Garden, called so because of its discovery in the colonial times by a man named Burk, who had escaped death by hiding there from pursuit by the Indians. In this garden among the mountains, the Dr. first looked out upon the world, and it was the home and birth place as well, of his six brothers and two sisters. His parents were not wealthy and his early years were spent in no "flowery beds of ease." At about twenty-one years of age, he entered the Emery and Henry College of Virginia, where his expenses were paid by working for his board and teaching school. In about two years he left that school and went to the leas mine country in Grant Co., Wisconsin. In the spring of 1844, he became a school teacher in Mississippi, from where he visited Louisville, Kentucky, and attended medical lectures in 1845. The next year he opened a drug store and commenced the practice of his profession in Prairie du Chien, Crawford Co., Wisconsin, where fortune smiled upon his efforts. In 1849 he visited Long Prairie, the Winnebago Indian reservation, in the government employ as a physician, and graduated that winter as a physician in the "University of Pennsylvania." His next move was to St. Paul, Minnesota, where, in 1850, the drug business and the practice of his profession occupied his time; and he remained there for four years. The practice of medicine and selling of drugs in St. Paul gave him plenty to do without a corresponding return in coin -- unpaid "bills receivable" predominated, and he decided that there was a shorter and easier road to wealth. He accordingly went, in 1854, to Leavenworth, Kansas, and purchased one-third of the town site, and through the raise in town property found himself suddenly worth $80,000. He was offered this amount for his possessions in Leavenworth, but refused to sell and borrowed $10,000, giving his city property as security. In 1861, the interest on that loan, aided by depreciation on real estate, caused by the War, had left him with $75 cash and no possessions. The mountains were his next destiny, and he became an assayer of minerals in Colorado Territory, and later, at Virginia City, Nevada. At length, he arrived in the Walla Walla valley, in 1862, shadowed by a debt of $500 for money borrowed from his friends. He visited Idaho City that year but returned to Walla Walla, in 1863, and, renting a shanty on the site of his present elegant store, started once more in the drug business and practice of his profession. The years that lie between that time and now, witnessed the events in his life that have resulted in the present evidences of his success, but we cannot give those events for want of space. Suffice it to say, that the experience of his earlier life, energy of character and a will to do, were guided by intelligence and shaped to the fullest capacity for benefit, the things that came in his way. It would seem, however, an incomplete sketch, if closed without reference to a few of the occurrences that have been among the many in those years of his Walla Walla life. Among them, that of the operations of the firm of "Baker & Day, Assayers, Walla Walla," was an important factor, in which Baker was the capitalist, and Day the scientific member of the firm. They melted down gold dust and sent it in bars to the U. S. Mint, charging 37 1/2 cts. per $100 for all melted and assayed. The Doctor's income from this source was $600 the first year. Later, the Doctor joined A. H. Reynolds, and the two started a bank, but eventually discontinued the business. In 1869 Dr. Day discounted his professional practice, and in 1874, visited the Old World for his health. After a tour of Austria, France, England, and other countries, he returned to Walla Walla, satisfied with the land of his birth, and content to end his days in the valley of "Many Waters." * * * * Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in August 2006 by Diana Smith. Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individual featured in the biographies.