Isaiah Cates Day, for whom the town of Dayton is named, was born in Shelby County, Tennessee, on June 12, 1812. According to family tradition, he came to Texas in 1830 with Sam Houston and remained a lifelong friend of Houston. He married Alice D. Stuart on July 27, 1835, and after her death married Rachel Whitlock on August 31, 1842, the daughter of early settler William Whitlock, who owned land along South Winfree Road. Day and Rachel had three children, Amanda, Mary Elizabeth, and James. After Rachel died in 1850, Day married Martha Caroline Munson Pruett Orr, twice widowed and the daughter of Micajah and Elizabeth Munson, among the earliest settlers of West Liberty, the name Dayton bore before 1885. Isaiah and Martha Caroline built their plantation on Munson land south of town, and Day became a cattleman who amassed up to 4,800 head of cattle worth $19,200 and owned property in Liberty, Harris, Chambers, and Galveston Counties, including land in Houston. In the 1860 census, he owned real property valued at $25,000 and personal property valued at $65,000. In 1853, as the Texas-New Orleans Railroad was built through West Liberty, Day supported the work by having his men labor on it. The Day household held 52 enslaved people according to the 1860 Slave Schedule of Liberty County. Railroad workers began calling the community Day's Town or Day's Station, and the name Dayton was applied to the local post office in 1877, though the official name remained West Liberty until the mid 1880s. Isaiah and Martha Caroline had one child, Martha "Mattie" Emilie, born in 1857. On January 15, 1860, Martha Caroline died in childbirth, and the second child also died; she was buried in the Pruett Family plot at French Cemetery. Day also fathered nine children with one of the enslaved people he held, Amanda Cribbs, including Aaron Jr. and Henderson. He did business with and was the best friend of a member of the Luke Bryan family of Liberty, which may explain why, when he died at age 66 on March 10, 1879, he was buried in the Bryan-Neyland Cemetery in Liberty. During his lifetime he was regarded as a well-respected, honest, wealthy, and successful man.