Clarence Eugene Day and Sarah Isabelle Beerman

"...a shrewd and desperate man." Democrat and Chronicle, (Rochester, NY) 29 October 1899.

Clarence Eugene² Day (Seymour Tuller¹) was born in September 1859 in New York, the son of Seymour Tuller Day and Cornelia Marble. [1] He was probably born in Lockport, Niagara County, where his family was living when the census was taken in June of 1860. [2] The 1875 census, however, lists his birthplace as Herkimer County, [3] and the 1865 census as Kings County. [4]

Eugene followed in the footsteps of older brother Byron, thirteen years his senior, and began a life of crime at an early age. In September 1874, at about 14 years of age, Eugene was sentenced to 30 days for petty larceny. [5] Upon his release he quickly picked up where he left off. On 6 August 1876 he and Byron entered the home of Alexander White, a prosperous Lockport merchant, in the wee hours of the morning and attempted to rob the sleeping inhabitants of their jewelry. One of them held Mrs. White by the throat while the other attempted to strip her rings from her fingers; but her cries aroused Mr. White, sleeping downstairs. Mr. White rushed to his wife's defense, and the masked pair brandished a revolver at him and battered him with a burglar's hammer. Mr. and Mrs. White fought the pair off and they fled. Eugene was apprehended later that day, and Mr. White's silver watch was found on his person. [6] He was sentenced to five years in the state prison for the crime. [7]

He apparently had had his sentence reduced for good behavior, for by 1880 Eugene was a free man. Along with the rest of the family, he had relocated to Rochester, in Monroe County, and was working in a shoe factory and boarding with the family of Jeremiah Tracy on Hill Street. [8] The 1881 Rochester city directory showed him working as a shoemaker at 79 N. Water, and boarding at 170 W. Main. His mother Cornelia lived down the street at 178. [9]

Sometime between 1881, when "Sarah B. Bierman" appeared in the Rochester City Directory, and July 1885, when their first child was born, Eugene married Sarah Isabelle Beerman. Sarah emigrated to the United Stated in 1878. [10] She was born Sarah Isabelle Beerman on 27 June 1859 [11] in Canada, the daughter of Richard Beerman and Lucy Patterson. In 1871 Richard Beerman and his family were living in Gananoque, Leeds, Ontario, where he worked as a laborer. He and his wife were Methodists.[12] In 1881 the Rochester city directory showed her working as a domestic and living at 52 Park Avenue. [13] Their marriage seems to have escaped the new recording requirements established by New York State in 1880, for the New York State Department of Health has no record of the marriage, nor does it appear in the on-line index of marriages maintained by the City of Rochester. [14] As an immigrant from a rural family, working as a servant, Srah must have seen Eugene Day, steadily employed as a shoemaker, as an attractive husband. If so, she was sorely disappointed.

After a few years of conventional employment, Eugene was back to his old ways. Sometime between 1881 and 1885 he, along with two men named Stein and Reinhart, were caught stealing sheep. Eugene was sentenced to three years in the Monroe County penitentiary. [15] After his release he quickly got into trouble again. On 1 July 1888 he and a partner, Dick Gardner, aka Richard Meservey, assaulted Valentine Dengler, of the firm of Connell & Dengler, on the streets of Rochester and robbed him of his $1600 payroll. Eugene and Gardner fled to Michigan, where in 1889 they cracked a safe in Kalamazoo and were quickly apprehended and sentenced to the state prison in Jackson for ten years. They won a new trial and had their sentences reduced to five years. Recognized as the Dengler robbers, they were returned to Rochester upon the completion of their sentences in July 1892 to stand trial. [16]

Eugene seemed not to have enjoyed his accommodations in the Monroe County Penitentiary, for on 23 September he, along with six others, escaped during the night. The escape was led by Clarence Tear, a master lock pick who had made a key to open the doors. The prisoners then finished sawing the bars from a window, a job they had been working on for several nights, made the 15-foot drop to the jailyard, and scaled the 15-foot wall to freedom. A $200 reward was offered for the capture of Eugene Day. [17] Eugene headed west, where authorities tracked him to the mountains of Montana, but lost any trace of him by 1894. [18]

Eugene had a chance to start afresh; instead, he fell back into his old ways. He was next heard of when he robbed a church in Minnesota and was subsequently found serving time in jail in Stillwater, Washington County. Minnesota. He was returned to Rochester, where in October 1899 he pled guilty to his jailbreaking offense. [19] His lawyer made a touching plea for a light sentence, noting that while Eugene had been on the run he had sent his wife money whenever possible, and that Mrs. Day would suffer greatly if he received a lengthy sentence. The lawyer blamed Eugene's western crime spree on the unwholesome influence of Dick Gardner, a fellow escapee. The arguments had an impact; although the maximum sentence for jail-breaking was five years, Eugene received only a one-year sentence. He seems never to have been tried on the original charge of burglary. [20] June of 1900 found Eugene still serving his sentence in the Monroe County Penitentiary. [21] Sarah Day was heading a household at 7 Hilton in the 11th Ward of Rochester, supporting her three children by working as a laundress. [22]

Eugene was free by 22 December 1900 when he, his brother Byron, and an associate, George Patterson, were arrested in Rochester for planning a new series of burglaries. [23] The trio had an exceptionally large collection of burglar's tools, which they planned to use to rob two groceries, a meat market, and another store. Eugene stated that he was married, although when apprehended he was living in a boarding house with his brother. The police seized Eugene before he could pull his revolver. [24] In March 1901 Patterson's testimony got Eugene sent to Auburn State Prison for three and a half years. [25] On May 27th he was transferred to Clinton State Prison. [26]

Clinton State Prison, where Eugene Day served ten years.

In the meantime, Sarah had apparently given up on Eugene. At some point after she described herself in the June 1900 census as married, she presumably divorced Eugene Day. She did not remain single long. On New Year's Day in Rochester in 1903, she married Frank Farr, who had been widowed but two months earlier. At the age of 38, he was five years her junior. [27] After some twenty years married to a convicted felon who was absent most of the time, leaving her to raise their three children on her own, Frank Farr, a respectable clerk, must have appeared to her like a knight on a white charger. The newlyweds promptly removed to Canada, where Sarah had been born. [28] They had returned to Rochester by 1906, when on 20 October Sarah died of gallbladder disease and peritonitis--her gallbladder presumably burst. She was 47 years old. She was buried in Mt. Hope cemetery. [29]

Eugene had only been free for a few weeks in 1904 when once again, he was arrested in Palmyra, Wayne Co. NY for grand larceny, burglary, and receiving stolen property. The date of his sentencing suggests that this took place in August of 1904. [30] In the Wayne County jail, he behaved as a model prisoner, and so aroused the suspicions of the jail officials. They kept a close eye on him and caught him attempting to force open the bars of the window with a beam from a table. After this Eugene was kept shackled. [31] On 21 November he pled guilty to receiving stolen goods and receiving the maximum sentence of ten years in light of his five previous felony convictions. Said the judge, noting Eugene's prior sentences: "I have little faith that the sentence which I am about to pronounce will have better results. It will at least, however, have the effect of placing you where the property of law-abiding citizens will be safe so far as you are concerned, so long as your sentence lasts." [32] On 22 November he was taken to Auburn State Prison to begin serving his sentence. [33]

Eugene was still in Clinton State Prison, in Dannemora, Clinton Co. at the time of the 1910 census, working in the prison laundry. The census indicated that he was married for the second time and had been married for fifteen years, suggesting a marriage year of c. 1895, although Eugene and Sarah were still married then. While bigamy was not unheard of in the Day family, it is more likely that the census record was in error. [34] No further record has yet been found for Eugene Day after this date.

Eugence Clarence Day and Sarah Isabelle Beerman had the following children: