Absalom Day

Source: Book: Name: Restored Ohio: History Brought Back to Life

                              Written by: Glenn Morris

https://ohioghosttowns.org/brown-county/

De La Palma, OH (early 1800s – early 1900s post office and farming town) Classification: ghost town

Location: Sterling Township, Brown County – On Dela Palma Rd near the intersection of Bardwell West Rd De La Palma was founded by Absalom Day (1773 – 1839) Elizabeth (Earhart) Day (1776 – 1843). They were one of the original 10 families in Williamsburg, Clermont County and received a land plat for settling there when it was a newly formed town. Their daughter Mary, born June 28, 1797, was the first child born in Williamsburg. A few years later, sometime around 1800, the Day family moved to a farm next to Dela Palma Rd. Absalom and Elizabeth had 12 children. Most of them married into families from nearby towns and moved away.

The road into what would become the tiny town of De La Palma provided a good traveling route between Clermont County and that section of rural Brown County. In the mid-1800s, William Weeks (1810 – 1875) and Sophia Weeks (1814 – 1885) bought the Day farm and opened up a post office and general store. It ran from 1850 – 1882 and helped get De La Palma mentioned in the 1883 History of Brown County, Ohio as a postal town. The name later went by Delapalma with a post office of the same spelling from 1898 – 1903. There was also a cooper shop near the post office and a one-room schoolhouse (Sterling Township No. 2) which operated for a few decades and still stands at the corner of Dela Palma Rd and Bardwell West Rd.

Absalom and Elizabeth were buried with some of their family members and other early families from the area in Price Cemetery near the bank of Four Mile Creek in Clermont County. It’s on private property between Zimmer Rd and Ireton Rd. Abasolom’s father, Revolutionary War veteran Jeremiah Day (1752 – 1820), was also buried there. His mother’s grave, Sarah (Dod) Day’s, hasn’t been located yet.