COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga. () – A ceremony featuring a canon and rifle salute took place Saturday morning, August 2nd, at the Evans Market beside Columbia County Performing Arts Center. The event honored Revolutionary War Veteran Stephen Day and marked the unveiling of a new memorial at his gravesite.
The family’s longstanding tale holds significance: Stephen Day, originally from Chester County, Pennsylvania, was raised as a Quaker, adhering to pacifist beliefs that forbade him from participating in war. Venturing out on his own, he first moved to North Carolina, wed there, and later settled in Georgia.
Once the Revolutionary War began, he broke with the religious tradition he was raised in and joined to fight with the Continental Army
Stephen Day survived the war, fathered ten children, and lived well into his 80s before passing away in Columbia County in 1825. He and his wife Margaret had seven sons and three daughters, with a family member noting that their children’s names and birthdates were meticulously recorded in the family Bible handed down through generations.
Day’s grave was unearthed during the creation of the Grove Landing Subdivision and remains within that community, just off Harlem Grovetown Road, near the Grovetown Trails at Euchee Creek. His resting place is gated, near the community pool positioned between Grove Landing Circle and Grove Landing Drive, where the new memorial markers were dedicated on Saturday.
Several of Day’s descendants were in attendance for the ceremony commemorating the new memorial marker.
As Day’s grave resides on private property within a subdivision, the ceremony was held at a spacious, public venue to welcome everyone wishing to honor Day’s legacy.
Visitors came from hundreds of miles away from Virginia, Florida, and other Eastern states. Wreaths had been sent from as far away as New Mexico.
The event was organized with assistance from the Col. William Few and Washington Wilkes Chapters of the Sons of the American Revolution. Music was performed by the Garden City Strummers, and participants from various Sons of the American Revolution chapters across multiple states dressed in full regalia to pay tribute to Day.
