HISTORY OF KENTUCKY AND KENTUCKIANS, E. Polk Johnson, three volumes, Lewis
Publishing Co., New York & Chicago, 1912. Common version, 
Vol. III, pp. 1291-92.   [Clark County]

JOHN C. MASON DAY is well known in business circles throughout the state
for succeeding in all of his undertakings.  He and his brothers inherited
large tracts of timber land, but instead of becoming what is known as
"land poor" as so many who did the same have become, Mr. Day has emerged a
wealthy and influential citizen.  The business methods by which he has done
this can not fail to interest the commercial world.
     Mr. Day was born June 3, 1859, the son of William Day, who was born in
Morgan county, Kentucky, August 21, 1821, and who died in Breathitt county,
January 28, 1884; the mother of our subject, Phoebe Elleanor Gibbs, was
born in Breathitt county, January 30, 1825, and died June 11, 1862.  The
grandfather was Jesse Day, born at New River, Virginia, January 13, 1802,
and he died in Morgan county, Kentucky, April 21, 1883.  His wife, Margaret
Caskey, was born in Morgan county, Kentucky, May 11, 1802, and died in the
same county in 1884.  The Caskeys were of Huguenot origin.  They came to
Kentucky from New York in wagons, settling first on Flat Creek, near Mt.
Sterling, in Montgomery county, but moving shortly afterward to Morgan
county, where they located on the Licking river one and one-half miles from
West Liberty.  The first of the name in Kentucky had run away from his
uncle John to whom he was apprenticed in New York, and tried to join the
Revolutionary army when only twelve years old, but was promptly returned to
his proud but worried uncle.
     When Washington was first inaugurated Margaret Caskey's mother took
part in the celebration as a flower girl.  She and her mother called on
Lady Washington.  Owing to the straitened times existing after the
Revolution, they had little finery in which to adorn themselves, and when
telling about it years after, would never fail to describe the pride which
prompted, and the difficulty which met her mother in her efforts to make up
their homemade silk dresses so as to make a worthy appearance.  Another
point in the story, as she was accustomed to tell it, was that when they
were ushered into the august presence of the first lady of the land, she
was quietly knitting in the corner by the fire-place and continued to knit
during the whole of the call.  They brought with them over the mountains
china and utensils rarely found in the back woods at that time, some of
which are still preserved with pride by the family, our subject owning a
beautiful old fashioned teapot.
     Mr. Day's great-grandfather, John Day, was born June 28, 1760, in
Lunenburg county, Virginia, and died on July 16, 1837, in Morgan county,
Kentucky.  He served throughout the Revolution, enlisting first in October,
1776, when only sixteen years of age, and being mustered out for the last
time in September, 1781.  He served under Colonels Joseph Cloyd, William
Preston and others and took part in a number of engagements with the
British and Torys in his section.  The last three years he served as spy
or Indian ranger, which speaks well for the woodcraft and discretion
possessed by a boy of nineteen.  Before the Revolution his family suffered,
on one of the inroads of the Shawnee Indians, a terrible massacre, several
of them being killed or captured.  This made such an impression that the
story has been handed down to the present day generation.  The wife of this
Revolutionary hero, named Rebecca Howe, was a woman of great force of
character.  She was born October 11, 1765, in Pennsylvania, and died March
17, 1856, while a resident of Morgan county, Kentucky.
     Our subject's maternal grandfather was Nathan Gibbs, born October 12,
1793, in Burke county, North Carolina, and died November 12, 1882.  His
wife was Jane Lipps, born August 14, 1797, and died April 24, 1867.  John
Gibbs, the father of Nathan, was born in South Carolina March 3, 1755, and
died March 15, 1847, a resident of Breathitt county, Kentucky. While living
in Burke county, North Carolina, in 1780, he enlisted in the Revolution and
served three months under Capt. Clark; and in 1781 he was again called out
and served several months under Capt. John Couley.  John Gibbs was a member
of the Legislature of North Carolina during the Revolutionary war and came
to Kentucky over the Cumberland Gap road bringing his household effects on
pack horses.  His wife, Hannah Muchmore, was a cousin of Daniel Boone, and
was born February 8, 1757, and died March 17, 1850.
     All of Mr. Day's ancestors above noted were farmers and leading men in
their time and section.  William, his father, was reared on a farm in
Morgan county, and educated at private schools.  He married on the 18th of
June, 1844, and bought land, most of which was virgin forest.  Here he
lived and followed farming until his death, at which time he owned ten
thousand acres of timber land.  In 1859 he was elected to the legislature
of his state on the Democratic ticket and served one term.  He did not
enlist in the war but kept horses and pilots on his place and would send
parties who wished to get through to join the Confederate army safely
across the mountains into Virginia and Tennessee, where they could achieve
their purposes.
     Mr. Day was a merchant also and his store and firm was destroyed and
robbed several times by Northern troops and sympathizers, on which account
he was obliged to leave the country and did not dare return until 1866,
after the war was ended.  He was successful in whatever he undertook,
farming, stock-raising, merchandising, and lumbering.  He had nine
children: Nathan B., J. Taylor, Margaret, Nancy Jane, Lucinda Caroline,
Mary Elizabeth, Floyd, John C.M., and William.  J. Taylor, FLoyd, John
C.M., and William are living.  On April 16, 1863, William Day married for
the second time, Lourana Cope, the daughter of James D. Cope, and left
one child, Lewella, the wife of James Hargis of Jackson, Kentucky.
     John C. M. Day was reared in Breathitt county, and received his early
education in the common schools and later attended the Cumberland College
in Virginia.  Upon reaching his majority he entered his father's store
for four years, at the end of which time he sold out and went to Jackson,
the county seat, and started the firm of Day Bros. & Co., a general
merchandise store in which he and his brother Floyd are still interested,
and in which they have build up a business of two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars a year.  Mr. Day and his brother Floyd own three lumber
mills, one in Breathitt county, one at Clay City, and one at Beattyville.
They also own ten thousand acres of timber, coal and farm lands.  They
have built twelve miles of railroad from Natural Bridge to Campton,
Kentucky, through some of the roughest country in the world, and will
extend it soon to Hazel Green, Kentucky; this is the Mountain Central
Railroad of which Mr. Day is vice president and general manager.  On
January 1, 1899, he started the wholesale grocery firm of White & Day in
Winchester, Kentucky, eighteen months later he bought out White then bought
out Pearson & Clark, wholesale grocers of Lexington, Kentucky, moved his
Winchester stock to Lexington, combined the two stores and later sold his
interest to W. J. Goodwin of Bryan, Goodwin & Hunt.
     Mr. Day married on January 30, 1887, Margaret McLin, who was born at
Rose Hill, Virginia, November 22, 1865.  She was the daughter of Capt. John
Blair and Mary (Bales) McLin.  Capt. McLin was born at Jonesboro,
Tennessee, May 1, 1833, and died July 14, 1910, in Virginia.  He enlisted
in Captain Tip Willet's Company in the 19th Tennessee Infantry in the Civil
war and became captain before its close.  He married on December 15, 1864,
Mary E. Bales, who was born in Lee county, Virginia, a daughter of R. M.
Bales, who is one of the best families of this section, and she survives
him, residing at Rose Hill, Virginia.  Capt. McLin was a ruling elder in
Mt. Carmel Presbyterian church for years and superintendent of the Sunday
school for twenty-five years.  His early life was spent at Jonesboro,
Tennessee, as a clerk in a store, and at the close of the war he became a
merchant and farmer, in which occupations he spent the remainder of his
life.  In 1883-84 he served a term in the Virginia Legislature.
     To Mr. and Mrs. John C. M. Day have been born four children, William,
Mary Eleanor, Kelly, and Catherine, all still young enough to remain at
home.  They own a beautiful home in Winchester, where they are highly
respected by all who know them.  Mr. Day has been fortunate in always
being able to secure the esteem and admiration of his numerous employees.
He is recognized as one of the leading spirits in commercial and business
circles but is never so busy that he can not grant to those who seek him
the courtesy of an interview.  Success in business has not changed his
kindly nature but made him a broad minded man of kindly spirit and genial
temperament.  He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church, of
which he is also a ruling elder.
     Mr. Day is the proud owner of a fine collection of guns and hunting
implements, and one of his chief delights is to run away from business
worries once each year to the wild woods, where for a few weeks he follows
the delights of hunting, the love of which has been bred into him by a
long line of ancestors skilled in the craft.

Day Gibbs Caskey Howe Lipps Muchmore Cope Hargis McLin Bales Boone
=
Morgan-KY Breathitt-KY Mt._Sterling-Montgomery-KY Lunenburg-VA Lee-VA
Jonesboro-Washington-TN Burke-NC SC NY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/clark/day.jcm.txt