BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Peoria City and County, Illinois
The S. J. Clarke Publ. Co.
1912
 

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NICHOLAS R. DAY.  In 1875, a little Irish lad fourteen years old, came to the old C. B. & Q. depot in Peoria, and applied to Mr. Lucas Merkle, then in charge of the station restaurant, for a position.  He was put to washing dishes, and doing other odd chores around the station.  Today, that little boy, grown up, Nicholas R. Day is owner of the restaurants in both the large railroad stations in this city, the Union and Rock Island depots.  It is an undoubted fact that the success of a man is not measured so much by the position he has gained in life, as by the position from which he has risen.  But Nicholas Day has gained success of both sorts.  He has attained a high place in the city of his birth, and he has risen from a very low one.  The qualities which made him a good dishwasher in the little old C. B. & Q. station, when he was fourteen years of age, have made him a successful hotel and restaurant owner today.  Promptness in execution, thoroughness in every undertaking, cleanliness, willingness to work, are qualities which are inevitably dominant influences in the life of the man who possesses them.  Nicholas R. Day's success was based upon their presence in his character.  He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, June 1, 1861.  He was of direct Irish descent, his father, Patrick Day having come from Ireland with his father to America when but fourteen years of age.  His mother, Ann Neyton was two years old when she was brought from Ireland.  The family moved from Missouri to Illinois, when Nicholas Day was very young, and settled near Farmdale, and in the country schools around this village, their son acquired his education.  He left school at the age of fourteen, and washed dishes in the railroad restaurant for a number of years.  When the Rock Island station was built, Nicholas Day entered the restaurant there where he served in various capacities until 1888.  All during his business career, he had carefully saved his earnings, until in that year, the little dishwasher was able to buy the restaurant privileges in the Rock Island depot, where he carried on a very successful business for a number of years and where he is still owner.  He is also owner and manger of the lunch counter and restaurant in the Union station of this city, and his energy, ability and knowledge of his business, have taken the departments of which he has control, out of the class of ordinary station restaurants.  Mr. Day is prominent in business circles of the city in other directions.  He is vice president and a director of the Peoria Artificial Ice Company, and is active and prominent in the Peoria Association of Commerce.  He votes a consistently republican ticket on national issues, but keeps himself independent of party lines and political partisanship in local affairs.  He is prominent in the Knights of Pythias, and Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America, and is a member of the Creve Coeur Club.      Nicholas R. Day was married in Peoria in 1885, to Miss Amelia Schleicher, daughter of George Schleicher of this city, and they have two children: Eva, the wife of Fred Seifert, Jr., of Peoria; and Arthur L. who is associated with his father in business.  Mr. Day is essentially a self made man, who by his indefatigable energy, unswerving determination, and rare ability has carved out an honorable career for himself, in a city where he began at the bottom rung of the ladder.   Source: Peoria City and County, Illinois - The S. J. Clarke Publ. Co. - 1912 - Page 386

RT. REV. EDMUND MICHAEL DUNNE, D. D., Catholic bishop of Peoria, is a native of Chicago.  He attended the parochial school of Holy Name parish and later with a student in St. Ignatius College before entering Niagara University.  He afterward pursued his studies in seats of learning in Belgium and in Rome, completing his course at the Gregorian University with high honors.  His first pastorate was at St. Columbkills, where he remained for eight years.  He speaks seven languages and is a man of scholarly attainments and keen philosophical trend of mind.  On the 1st of September, 1909, he was consecrated bishop of Peoria in Holy Name Cathedral by his Grace Most Rev. Diomede Falconio, D. D., apostolic delegate to the United States. Source: Peoria City and County, Illinois - The S. J. Clarke Publ. Co. - 1912 - Page

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