Daniel Day (1767 in Mendon Massachusetts – October 26, 1848 at

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxb ...

, Worcester County,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

) was an American pioneer in woolen manufacturing.

Family

Daniel Day was born in Mendon, MA and was the son of Joseph Day and Deborah Taft. He married Sylvia Wheelock, and they had two sons and two daughters, both born in Mendon up until 1800, (according to the Mendon vital records). He was a 4th generation descendant of the original Taft family in America, Robert Taft Sr., who had settled in the western section of Mendon in 1679.

Career and history

At the age of 43, Daniel Day established one of the oldest woolen mills in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, the Daniel Day Mill. He built a dam along the West River (Massachusetts) and near the dam he built the woolen carding mill. Today the site is generally known as "Elmdale"" and is just south of the main village of Wheelockville, and "Hecla", off of Elmdale Road, at Scott's Lane, in the town of Uxbridge. Pliny Earle I, had developed carding machines at

Leicester, Massachusetts Leicester ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The population was 11,087 at the 2020 United States Census. History What is now Leicester was originally settled by the Nipmuc people and was known by them as ''Towtaid''. On January 27 ...

, near Worcester, as early as the 1780s. Daniel Day's wool carding mill was only the second mill established in the historic Blackstone River Valley, considered a major contributor to the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

in the U.S. 'Elmdale' near Wheelockville, was the site of the ''Daniel Day Mill'', the first

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

in Uxbridge, the first woolen mill in the valley(1809), the second oldest woolen mill in Massachusetts, (after one in Watertown, MA), the third textile mill in the state, and third oldest woolen mill in U.S. (after a worsted mill in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

). This system of mills, dams and villages was developed by John and

Samuel Slater Samuel Slater (June 9, 1768 – April 21, 1835) was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" (a phrase coined by Andrew Jackson) and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the ...

, and became known as the Rhode Island System. There was only one other mill, a cotton mill, that was established in Uxbridge that year, which was the Clapp Mill on the

Mumford River The Mumford River is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 river in south-central Massachusetts. It is a tributary of the Blackstone River. The river rises f ...

. His son Joseph, born in 1790, joined the business, along with Jerry Wheelock. Quickly a loom was added to the carding machine works by 1811, and they later greatly enlarged the mill by 1825. Internet Archive: Historical Homes and Institutions, Ellery Bicknell Crane, page 186, vol 3 Historic Homes and Genealogies, Ellery Bicknell Crane, p. 186-188, vol 3)
/ref> One of Daniel Day's children, his daughter, married Luke Taft, who started another famous Mill in Uxbridge, The Luke Taft Mill, later known as the Waucantuck Mill. Luke Taft was a descendant of the famous American Taft family which had its roots in Mendon and Uxbridge. Daniel Day was also an ancestor of a branch of the Wheelock family which established an early factory continues in business in the 21st Century, as Berroco, Inc, now headquartered in nearby

North Smithfield, Rhode Island North Smithfield is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, settled as a farming community in 1666 and incorporated into its present form in 1871. North Smithfield includes the historic villages of Forestdale, Primrose, Waterfo ...

Death and afterwards

The death of Daniel Day is recorded in the

Vital Records. It also contains clues about one of his children, and he is listed as a widower, who died on October 26, 1848, of Consumption or

Tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

, at the age of 81. This is from page 369 of Uxbridge Vital Records thru 1850. His wife Sylvia Day died in 1842 at the age of 77. His son Peter died in 1815, at age 23.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Daniel 1767 births 1848 deaths People from Uxbridge, Massachusetts People of the Industrial Revolution American textile industry businesspeople Woollen industry