Wednesday, May 30, 2018

December 24, 1871: George Duncan

Today's lynching is very short as every article I could find on this lynching shared the same information. Our paper today is the Pittsburgh Daily Commercial (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) dated December 30, 1871:

Homicide and Lynching in Kentucky

CINCINNATI, O., December 29.—Last Friday evening, says a correspondent of the Times and Chronicle, a man named Browning, accompanied by others, went to the house of George Duncan, a colored man, in Braxton county, Kentucky, to whip the latter, or eject him from the house. Duncan showed fight, and on the door being broken down by his assailants he fired into the crowd, killing Browning. Duncan was captured and taken to the Brookville jail in his shirt and drawers. Sunday night at nine o'clock fifty-two disguised armed men took him from the jail and started in the direction of Powersville. Duncan made an effort to escape, but was recovered and finally hung to a tree a mile and a half from Brookville. There was great excitement in the place on Monday, and it was not easy to procure information.

A quick note: the Brookville mentioned is actually Brooksville, Kentucky which is in Bracken County. Some papers did have it listed as Bracken, some as Braxton. One Indiana paper, in a piece on lynching in Indiana, stated that the Brookville lynching was only an attempt but I could find no other papers to support that claim. Also Brookville is very clearly in Kentucky, on the Ohio side at that, and not in Indiana so I suspect the editor was mistaken. 

Thank you for joining us, and as always, we hope we leave you with something to ponder.

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