The D. H. Day Family Papers, 1860,2009, and undated, contains correspondence, photographs, student grade records, scrapbooks, scrapbook pages, recollections, newspaper clippings (copies), a wooden sign, and personal materials about members of the extended Day family. The collection materials focus on D. H. Day I and Eva Farrant Day, Ida Farrant, D. H. Day II and Helen Gunckel Day, D. H. Day III, and Louis Warnes and Marion Day Warnes. Business and real estate related material include Glen Haven Canning Company, D. H. Day General Store, D. H. Day Sawmill, Oswegatchi Farm, and Day Forest. While the majority of the materials were created by members of the Day family, some were created by George Weeks for his research and books about the Glen Haven area. Correspondence between Weeks and various members of the Day family exists in this collection and the George Weeks Papers. Researchers may also be interested in the George Weeks Papers and his books about the Sand Dunes National Lakeshore area, and D. H. Day’s book Glen Lake Region, 1911, which are separately cataloged in the Clarke.
Biography:
D.H (David Henry) Day I (1852-1928), came to Michigan in 1878 as Northern Transit Company’s (NTC) Glen Haven agent. By 1881, Day I had purchased many NTC properties including Glen Haven using savings and funds borrowed from friend, Perry Hannah. Over time, Day I diversified his business investments to include the creation of D. H. Day General Store, D. H. Day Sawmill, Oswegatchi Farm, Glen Haven Canning Company, and Day Forest.
Day I and Eva Farrant (1870-1936) married in 1889. At the time of their marriage, Eva was 19 and D.H. was 36 years of age. They had 9 children including Alice (1891-1983), Eva (1894-1984), Margaret (1896-1988), D.H. II (1898-1966), Estelle (1905-1977), and twins, Marion (1911-2006) and William (1911-1981). Two of the children died young, an unnamed infant girl in 1890, and Henry Houston (1902-1906).
In 1920, Day I donated 32 acres to the state of Michigan to become D. H. Day State Park. The park is currently part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A portion of Day Forest was sold in 1922 for real estate development. Called Day Forest Estate, it included the Day Forest Golf Club. The project failed during the Great Depression.
D. H. Day II married Ohioan Helen Gunckel (1899-1977) in 1923. They had one son, D. H. Day III (1928-2006).
Marion Day married Louis Warnes (1899-1988) in 1929. The couple created Sleeping Bear Dunesmobile Rides. Frank E. Fisher was the founder of Glen Arbor and Louis Warnes’ grandfather.
Ida Farrant is Eva Farrant Day’s sister. Eva and Ida’s father was the innkeeper for Glen Haven’s Sleeping Bear Inn.
Much of the property and land owned by the Day family was purchased by the National Park Service for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
D. H. Day also wrote Glen Lake Region, 1911, a copy of which is separately cataloged in the Clarke.
This information comes is from the collection and George Weeks’ book, Sleeping Bear, Yesterday and Today.)
