Thomas Davis Day papers

The Thomas Davis Day Papers consist of fifteen letterbooks, which range in date from 1839 to 1871, a book recounting the history of the Day family, The Journals of Thomas Davis Day, written by Stanley M. Rowe, Jr. in 1990, and a scrapbook. The letterbooks contain Day's personal and business correspondence. Letters from the 1840s to his mother and other family members chiefly concern family matters and his interest in family history. They also describe daily life in New Orleans, including yellow fever epidemics, and river boat travel on the Mississippi. Business letters pertain to Day's work for Slark, Day, and Stauffer, including descriptions of business travel to New York and Washington, D. C. Following Day's relocation to St. Louis in 1846, the letters provide details of his business and financial activities in the 1840s and 1850s. There is also some discussion of Day's pro-slavery views and of national politics during the years leading up to the Civil War. There are no entries, however, between 1860 and 1864. After the war, Day's letters are largely concerned with the dissolution of his partnership with Shapleigh, his subsequent financial difficulties, and the Day family's strained relationship with James Ingersoll Day over the latter's dishonest financial dealings and mistreatment of family members. Thomas Davis Day, merchant of New Orleans, St. Louis, and New York City, was born in Ohio in 1820. At age sixteen he moved to New Orleans to work for his brother, James Ingersoll Day (1812-1896), who was a partner in the hardware firm of Slark, Day, and Stauffer. In 1846, Thomas Davis Day moved to St. Louis and with Augustus F. Shapleigh formed a hardware business, Shapleigh and Day. He married Frances Helm of Natchez, Mississippi, in 1859. After the Civil War, Day experienced business troubles and dissolved his partnership with Shapleigh. He relocated to New York City in 1865 and founded the hardware firm of Day and Haley, which went into bankruptcy in 1871. Day died in 1896.