Page 20 - Always Virginia

8 Virginia Day Fritscher

Bartholomew, Junior’s older brother, John T., Senior, attended
the Lynch-Day wedding (c. 1870) with the thought of traveling on
to New Orleans, or, according to one story, Tipperary, if need be,
in search of a bride. Instead, age 51, he danced with that never-
married aunt of Mary Lynch, Catherine Dorsey (1816-1909), who
was born in Youghal in Cork, was three years older than he, and
was so independent in spirit that in his later years, he was inclined
to say out of her presence, according to Judge John W. Day, that “It
was a sad day for me when I met ‘Irish Kate.’” Their senior marriage
of convenience that became inconvenient produced no children.
As a result, his dutiful brother Bartholomew, Junior, gratefully
named his first son, John Tyrrell Day, Junior, thus turning “John
T. Day” into “John T. Day, Senior,” in the local newspapers and
history books like The History of the Illinois River Valley.
This essay preserves the “Senior” and “Junior” labels to match
that exact usage in historical documents, and then switches to
the more common use of Roman numerals for the third genera-
tion. So Bartholomew staying in Tipperary is “Senior”; his son,
Bartholomew, the immigrant, is “Junior”; and Junior’s son, Bar-
tholomew (Bart/Batty), born in Michael, Illinois, is “III.”
In 1952, when Virginia Day Fritscher’s son John/Jack, age thir-
teen, asked his grandfather, Bartholomew III, why he had no middle
name, he joked, “We were too poor to afford one.” In the 1930
census, and seemingly only in the 1930 census, there is a “Valentine
Day” listed, without the “Bartholomew,” whose life-details as “head
of household” match Bartholomew III; but this name “Valentine,”
appearing nowhere else in the Day short-list of names, seems to be
a mistake, or a census-satirizing subversive joke made to the seri-
ous census taker by Bart who was known for his kidding sense of
humor. Who, besides Stage Irish vaudeville comedians, engaged in
the stereotypes of Paddywhackery, would saddle their child with
the name “Valentine Day”? In that same census, Mary Pearl Day is
listed off-kilter as “Pearl M. Day.” Twenty-four years later in 1954,
Bartholomew died on February 13, the Eve of St. Valentine’s Day.