DUNROVEN, ALLENWOOD

A Missionary Life:
Rev. J. Wesley Day
China, Malaysia, Indonesia

Sidetrip: "Dunroven", in Allenwood, New Jersey

In December, 1915, as shown by the deed, my father bought a farmhouse in Allenwood, New Jersey. He borrowed the money from my mother 's brother, Uncle Willie Walker, to pay for it. Uncle Willie had a peach farm in Ridgeville, Maryland. I think I was on vacation from college when Dad finished paying for it, and I attended a little mortgage burning ceremony. On the wall over my desk at Ocean Grove hangs a photograph of the house with Mrs. Alonzo King (I assume) standing on the porch. On the back of the picture was written in pencil someting like, "Mr. Day, this is your new home that you have just purchased." My brother, Roby, and his wife, Joy, had this picture framed, then presented it to Mom and me as a "Christmas present" February l, l96l. Above the picture hangs a large hand-drawn picture of the house by Jeff Propert.

So December l6, l9l5 Roby F Day bought the house from Alonzo King. June 3. 1959, retaining life use, he sold the house to J Wesley Day and Ruthydia S. Day. In January 1979, retaining life use, J. Wesley Day transferred title of the home to Jackson H Day and Vivia Day Tatum.

During the school vacation, 1916, the Day family lived at Allenwood. After our arrival from Inwood the first big job was to pull weeds from the garden. I remember many of them in early June were already bigger than I was and I couldn't pull them. Mother objected to my working in the sun during the hot days, so my work was optional. One day mother got Indian suits out of a trunk or suitcase which she put on Roby and me. We played in them and someone took our picture.

After working through the heat of the day in the yard and the garden, sometimes we would walk down to the Manasquan River. There was a swimming hole a little down the river and just in sight of the bridge. Sometimes mothers would watch their little ones play in or near the water. Farmers put up a diving board which the older boys, especially, enjoyed. Some brave boys would jump off the bridge. I remember one time only the boys were there and some of the big ones said they were going to throw the little ones into the river to teach them to swim. I didn't want to learn to swim in this way so I went and hid. I don't think my brothers were there that day.

If families were present we wore bathing suits. If just boys were there we didn't bother..... but if a wagon or car approached we would dive into the water till it crossed the bridge.

When I was eight I was allowed to go fishing with a kind and elderly neighbor. I caught a few perch and sunfish. They were full of bones but they tasted good.

Our first smmer in Allenwood, one day the Woolleys said, "Huckleberries are ripe. Let's pick some." So the Woolleys and the Days went huckleberrying in the open wooded country near our homes. I was just turning six, I was following the others when I began to cry. Someone saw what had happened---I had walked into a nest of wild bees or yellow jackets. I was quickly lifted out of the situation and ministered to. But I shall never forget the fuzzy bees that stung.

That year Mother killed one or more rattlesnakes on our farm. She had a collection of rattlesnake eggs, some in the act of being hatched, which she preserved. It is said there are now no rattlesnakes in Allenwood. There were some in 1916. I saw a little gartersnake near the house once and stood looking at it, friendly and curious, for about five minutes. People told me I was "charmed" by it. It was a charming little creature who seemed as curious about me as I was about it.

A humming bird, hardly bigger than a bee, drank nectar from the flowers at the end of the porch, standing on nothing to do it, just humming away.

Mother used to take us to the window, or out to the porch, to see the "pretty lightning." One time, however, while we were watching pretty lightning from our porch, the lightning struck the church steeple, a block away, and we retired into the house.

Roby and Vivia Day with granddaughter Vivia at Dunroven, 1945

Jack's Tenth Birthday at Dunroven, 1952. Ruthlydia, Jack, Granddad Roby, Vivia, Grandmother Vivia

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