NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Wilbur F. DAY, owner of the flourishing confectionery business established in Morristown and is known all over that part of New Jersey, was born in Morristown, March 24, 1869. His parents were another Wilbur Fisk and Elizabeth (KINSEY) DAY. The older Mr. DAY was born January 6, 1839, at New Providence, New Jersey, and came to Morristown, May 20, 1862, and entered into business there. He bought out a small confectionery store, and from that as a beginning the present business started. It is now known throughout the state for the excellence of the cakes and other confections that are furnished. Elizabeth (KINSEY) DAY was the daughter of Dr. Phineas KINSEY, a native of Morristown, and she died January 6, 1905. Wilbur Fisk and Elizabeth (KINSEY) DAY had ten children, two of whom died in infancy; Walter B.; Wilbur F., with whom the present biographical sketch is concerned; Nettie Badgley, married J. Kelsey BURR, and lives in East Orange, New Jersey; Oliver; Frederick Morgan; Charles Maynard, born April 3, 1879; Harvey Pierson; John Crane, born in August, 1887, at present practicing dentistry in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Of these, Charles M. and Frederick M. Kinsey are now associated with their brother, Wilbur F. DAY, in the confectionery business.

The grandparents of Mr. DAY on the paternal side were Thomas and Elizabeth (CRANE) DAY, born near New Providence, and both of them living to an advanced age, the former to that of eighty-nine and the latter to that of ninety-four years. On his mother’s side his grandfather was the famous Dr. Phineas KINSEY, who married a Miss BADGLEY, a native of Morris county, and was a physician with a reputation all over the State of New Jersey. He was considered eccentric because of his belief in a vegetarian diet. He lived to the age of ninety-one, and his wife to the age of eighty-nine years. In the generation preceding these people, a great-grandmother had also reached the age of ninety-eight years. A remarkable thing about the children of the elder Wilbur Fisk DAY was that they all attended the Centenary Institute at Hackettstown, and Evelyn, daughter of the present Wilbur F. DAY, is there now. There has not been a year since 1885 when there has been no DAY in attendance at the school.

The early education of Wilbur F. DAY was acquired at the school of Morristown, a course in the grammar schools being followed by one in the High School, and that in turn by work at the old Morris Academy, later going to the C. C. Institute of Hackettstown, from which he graduated in 1889. Upon leaving school he came home and went at once into the business which had been established by his father. From a small beginning the undertaking has prospered and grown enormously, meeting as the years went by a success commensurate with the energy, ability and integrity of the men at the back of the enterprise. The older brother, Waters B. DAY, has charge of the Newark branch of the firm of W. F. DAY & Brothers. He is also president of the Newark Trust Company.

Mr. Wilbur F. DAY is in his political preferences a Republican. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum. For many generations back he and his ancestors have been members of the Methodist Episcopal church, his father having served as president of the board of trustees for six years. Mr. DAY married at Morristown, November 21, 1894, Cora N., born in Morristown, February 15, 1874, daughter of Gilbert YOUNG, a contractor of Morristown, with a large experience in that town, and now living retired from active business. They have five children: Evelyn Young, born July 5, 1896; Wilbur F. (3), born May 18, 1898; Alice Mary, born January 20, 1900; Lois Cornelia, born May 16, 1905; and Thomas Monroe, born September 16, 1910.

Transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003)

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