BIO: William Howard DAY, Dauphin County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JAWB Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/ http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm _______________________________________________________________ Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers. Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, page 308. _______________________________________________________________ DAY, WILLIAM HOWARD, son of John Day (1783-1828) and Eliza Dixon (1793-1869), was born October 16, 1825, in the city of New York. He was educated in the public schools of his native city, in the private school of Rev. Frederick Jones, and prepared for college in the high school, Northampton, Mass., then in charge of Rev. Rudolphus B. Hubbard and Tutor Dwight, subsequently of Yale College. In 1843 he entered Oberlin College, graduating in 1847. He learned the art of printing in the Hampshire Gazette office at Northampton, and afterwards turned his attention to teaching and lecturing. In 1850 he was elected by the colored citizens of Ohio, at a State conference, to plead their cause before the Ohio Constitutional Convention. From 1852 to 1855 he edited The Aliened American, at Cleveland, having previously been local editor of the Cleveland True Democrat, now the Leader. In 1861 he was invited to take the lecture platform in Great Britain, and remained there particularly at the request of the American residents from the North to explain to the people of England the issues at stake in the great civil conflict then transpiring in the United States. Returning to his native country he resumed his profession of teacher. In 1867 and 1868 he was superintendent of schools in the district of Maryland and Delaware under the United States Government. During the incumbency of Gen. Harrison Allen as auditor general of Pennsylvania, 1872-75, he held a clerkship in the corporation department of that office. In 1868 Mr. Day was ordained an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion connection, and in 1875 and 1878 was secretary of the General Conference of that body. He was the first person of color elected to the board of school control of the city of Harrisburg, serving from 1878 almost continuously to the present.