Ouachita Parish Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....Day, John H. June 13, 1894


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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Lora Peppers loradpeppers@hotmail.com February 14, 2008, 11:03 am

Various newspapers from North Louisiana.
Richland Beacon-News (Farmerville, LA)
Saturday, June 16, 1894
Page 2, Column 1
	From Hon. F.G. Hudson we learn that a man by the name of Daye was 
lynched in Monroe on last Wednesday night.  It seem[s] that mysterious fires 
have occurred in Monroe for months past. [,]   sometimes in the day and 
sometimes at night.  On Wednesday three fires occurred in different parts of 
the city at different times.  A bundle of fat pine or kindling was found at 
each place where the fires occurred.  The pine was fastened together by wire, a 
kind of white or pliable wire.  Getting this clue, a blood hound was secured 
and put upon the track.  The dog, after running around for a time, came to 
Daye's gate.  When the house was searched a similar bundle of pine tied up with 
wire was found.  Daye was arrested and lodged in the calaboose, from where a 
crowd took him and hung him.

The Guardian-Journal (Homer, LA)
Wednesday, June 20, 1894
Page 2, Column 1
	J.H. Day, a white man, was recently lynched at Monroe.  Day was charged 
with burning houses and the proof of his guilt seems to have been conclusive.  
Lynch law is always to be deplored, but no community can tolerate fire bugs.

The Banner-Democrat (Lake Providence, LA)
Saturday, June 23, 1894
Page 2, Column 2
JUDGE LYNCH AT MONROE.
	A white man by the name of J.H. Day was speedily hanged in Monroe on 
Wednesday of last week.  It appears that several fires had occurred in Monroe 
lately, which were without a doubt the work of an incendiary.  On Wednesday of 
last week two fires took place in Monroe the same evening, and both were 
supposed to be the work of the same incendiary; a blood-hound was put on a 
trail and followed it to the house of one J.H. Day, who immediately was 
arrested and put in the calaboose.  Later on in the night unknown parties, as 
usual, got the keys of the jail from the policeman who had charge of it, and 
Day was hanged to a tree not far from the house that he was supposed to have 
fired.  On analyzing the evidence given against Day, as printed in the Monroe 
papers, we find that it was all circumstantial, and we hesitate not to stamp as 
murderers the unknown parties who took it upon themselves to "dispose of Day."  
Why!  because the dog followed a trail to Day's house, because cobwebs and 
whitewash were found on Day's clothes supposed to have gotten there by crawling 
under the houses to fire them, and because especially on his back gallery "were 
found pieces of plank which had been split for kindling, which in sap, heart 
and grain corresponded to the pieces of kindling used in firing the 
houses,"[.]  Day was taken out of jail, and made acquainted with Ouachita 
parish summary proceedings of justice.  The taking of human life on 
circumstantial evidence of this kind by unauthorized parties is murder, 
consequently totally unjustifiable and the lynchers should be prosecuted.  
Admitting the fact that Day was the incendiary fiend he was supposed to be, is 
there no court of justice in Ouachita parish?  Was there even one chance for 
Day to get out of the clutches of the law?  It is admitted that Day had no 
money, that he had no friends, that he was securely confined in one of the 
latest improved jails, that there was no way for him to escape conviction and 
punishment in a community already aroused against him, and it was a case in 
which lynching, if it is ever justifiable, was certainly a crime.  Of course, 
as usual no one knows the lynchers, but, we presume, everybody can spell their 
names.  Will the District Judge and the District Attorney and the next Grand 
Jury of Ouachita parish, strictly in accordance with their oaths of office, say 
to the lynchers at the next term of the court:  "Well done, gentlemen."  Will 
the Governor send a reward of merit?
	Monroe's lynching record is not a short one, and the bar sinister of 
her escutcheon is not unsullied.  She claims to be the "Parlor City," but her 
annals would read more like those of a frontier town.  But we are not warring 
against the pride [?] of the Ouachita, we simply advocate the principles of 
justice for all men, even in the case of a fiend like Day, if he was really 
guilty.  There may be cased when populy [sic popular] frenzy knows no delay in 
the punishment of atrocious crimes, when ordinary courts of justice are too 
slow to be remedial and efficacious, but such was certainly not the case with 
Day, even if he was an incendiary.  Meridian, Miss., suffered from 
incendiarism; lynching was also proposed, but promptly rejected by cool and 
wise citizens, and the incendiaries were promptly brought to grief and 
punishment, as they should have been.
	Let lynching like that of Monroe go unpunished, and you may as well 
license it for other supposed offenses; allow lynching for arson and where will 
you draw the line?


Additional Comments:
John H. Day was a soldier with George Armstrong Custer's famed 7th Cavalry.  He 
was a private in Company H and served under Frederick Benteen at Little 
Bighorn.  He married Eliza Parks (Nee:  Eubanks) April 11, 1886 in Ouachita 
Parish.  Eliza never remarried and died February 19, 1901.  She is buried 
beside Mary Goss in Monroe's Old City Cemetery.  Plans are currently underway 
to place a military marker for John Day beside that of his wife.

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