James Gamble Day

DAY, James Gamble, jurist, was born in Jefferson county. O., June 28, 1832, of English parentage. He earlv evinced a liking for the law and was graduated in the law school at Cincinnati in 1857, going immediately to Iowa and locating in Afton, Union co., in the southern part of the state. His home town is but a short distance from the Missouri line, and at the outbreak of the civil war the feeling in Afton was intense. Young Day promptly offered his services and was commissioned lieutenant of company F, 15th Iowa infantry. For bravery and distinctive services he was promoted to the captaincy of company I, in the same regiment. Wounded at the battle of Shiloh, Day was obliged to leave the service and he returned to Iowa. In 1862 he was elected judge of the third judicial district of Iowa, retaining the position by subsequent elections until 1870, when he resigned to succeed Judge George G. Wright on the supreme court bench. He served on this bench for thirteen years, retiring the last of December, 1893. He was chief justice three times: in 1871, 1877 and 1883. Judge Day was recognized as one of the deepest thinkers and most logical men that had ever sat on the Iowa supreme court bench. He was married in Steubenville, O., Dec. 1, 1857, to Minerva C. Manly, who was a prominent societv woman and club worker. He died suddenly, in Des Moines, May 1, 1898.

SOURCE: The National Cyclopaedia Of American Biography, Volume 12, p. 518