Day, Harry L. (Harry Loren), 1865-1942

Harry Loren Day, the eldest son of Henry and Ellen Day, was born at Dayton, Nevada, on December 12, 1865. He was graduated from the two-year business course at St. Mary's College, San Francisco, and assisted his father in the family store at Wardner, kept accounts for other merchants, worked in mines in Idaho and Montana, and played a dominant role in the development of the Hercules Mine which he and Fred Harper discovered in 1889. Like his father he was an active Republican in Idaho politics. In 1899 he was secretary of the Idaho senate, and in 1913 was the first president of the Idaho Mining Association. He was also Idaho commissioner to the Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915. Harry and his brothers Jerome and Eugene became Democrats and remained so until Franklin Roosevelt caused them to return to the Republican party.

In 1900 he married Helen Bernadette (Nellie) Dwyer, daughter of a farmer near the Old Mission. The Catholic ceremony was held at the Cataldo Mission church on August 13; one son, Henry Lawrence Vincent, was born to them.

Harry managed the Hercules company from 1898 to 1912, and again from 1922 until he gradually turned the duties over to his son. He was also president and general manager of the Federal Mining and Smelting Company, 1912-1916, and took the title of traffic manager of the Hercules and associated companies, 1916-1922, directing the delicate coordination of ore production, routing, and smelting necessary for commercial success.

While manager of the Hercules, Day and his associates acquired a Wallace newspaper, bank, real estate, concentrating mills, a lead smelter in Washington and another in Pennsylvania. He shared the Hercules with his family and protected a tight family control. He was also, with his family, an owner of the renowned Portland Hotel in Portland, Oregon from 1910-1942.

His lifetime hobby was target shooting, and in later years collected western Americana. Although he was a principal in a lumber company and a notable livestock breeding partnership, his career centered on mining in the Coeur d'Alene district. His acumen as a businessman is evident in his fight with the Guggenheims in their bid to monopolize smelting in North America. Shortly after the takeover he was hired as manager of one of their smelters.

Harry remained in the Wallace region while business dictated, but moved to California when he was able. In his later years he was like any other wealthy grandfather, gardening and enjoying visits with his nieces and nephews at his sea captains home in Las Palmas near Santa Barbara. He also retained a lifelong interest in boats by sailing with his brother-in-law, Robert Ellis. In the early 1930s they were shopping to buy a sea going yacht over a hundred feet long. Harry Day died in Santa Barbara on November 19, 1942. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Spokane.

From the guide to the Papers, 1889-1956, (University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives)