Allen, Hickman Courier, January 21, 1915
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress
Allen, Hartford Republican, January 15, 1914
Chronicling America, Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress
Allen, Earlington Bee, November 17, 1914
Stone, Louisville Courier Journal, November 28, 1896
Stone Talks Freely Will Likely Be Kept Here for Several Weeks. ----------- SAYS HE IS INNOCENT. ----------- But the Mayfield People Think He Is Undoubtedly Guilty. James Stone, the young colored man who was brought to this city from Mayfield, KY., to escape a furious mob, who assert that he is the man who assaulted Mrs. J. M. R. Green at that place several days ago, is still confined in a cell in No. 5, and he will be kept in this city until an order is issued to have him sent back for trial. It is likely that he will remain here several weeks at least, until the excitable element in the neighborhood where the assault was perpetrated can have time to settle down and come to the conclusion that the law should be allowed to take its course. Stone still asserts his innocence, and, though he has told his story to a number of people, he has never varied in the least. He feels secure here, for he believes that he can prove his innocence, but he has reasons to believe that he would not live many minutes should he be taken back to Mayfield. Stone talks freely about his case to any person who approaches him, and his unwavering account of his actions previous to and after the assault have impressed all who have heard his story.
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Stone, Louisville Courier Journal, November 26, 1896
Left The Mob Mayfield Negro Brought Here From Paducah. --------------- A NARROW ESCAPE. -------------- James Stone Says He Did Not Commit the Assault. -------------- SHERIFF HOLLAND’S STORY James Stone, the young colored man who is charged with the criminal assault upon Mrs. J. M. R. Green, a young married woman of Mayfield KY., at about 10 o’clock Monday night, was landed in the jail in this city at 11:30 o’clock last night, after having passed through all the excitement incident to an attempt of a mob to take him from the officers who had him in charge at Paducah. Stone certainly had a narrow escape from death at the hands of the mob. He stoutly proclaimed his innocence. When asked for his story last night he was perfectly willing to talk. Stone is twenty-one years of age and has a good countenance. He declares that he is innocent of the charge preferred against him, and he says that he can prove that he started from a certain house for his home two hours before the crime is said to have been committed, and that he went directly to the place where he works. He says the only difficulty in his way is the fact that the family where he is employed were asleep when he reached the house, and although he lighted [sic] his lamp and kept it burning some time before he retired they say that they did not see it. He possesses good common sense, and tells a straight story without variation even under close questioning. He said: “I had been working for Mr. James Richard, whose place is about four miles from Mayfield, and on Monday morning Mr. Richard told me that I could go to the place of Mr. Jake Lewis, near Mayfield, for that day, provided I returned that night. I went as he told me and Mr. and Mrs. Lewis gave me some work to do, stripping tobacco, and I worked there all day. I left there about 6 o’clock and went to the house of one of his strippers, a short distance away. I stayed at this place until about 8 o’clock and then I started for home--I mean Mr. Richard’s place. As soon as I reached home I lit my lamp and got ready for bed. I do not know exactly what time it was when I got in bed, but I suppose all the family were alieep [sic]. They said so afterward. “I went to work stripping tobacco for Mr. Richard as I had been in the habit of doing Tuesday morning. I had not been at work long before Sheriff Cook and another gentleman, whom I did not know, came out where I was working and put me under arrest. They told me what I was arrested for, but I knew nothing about the crime they were talking of [sic]. I was taken to the home of Mrs. Green. There were several men there, and they asked Mrs. Green if I was the man who assaulted her.” “Did you know Mrs. Green?” was asked here. “No,” replied the prisoner, “I had heard of her, but I had never been to her house. When the men asked her if I was the man she told them no; she said I was too tall and that the man who assaulted her was yellow. One of the men asked her how she could tell all this in the dark. She replied that she could tell by the firelight. But the men were not satisfied with that. I was taken to the jail and on the way the mob which had formed almost got me. I was pretty scared for a while.” “They tried their best to get to me, but the men who were guarding me kept them off by keeping their pistols drawn all the time. They ordered the crowd to stand back or they said they would shoot. I was put in jail, and was kept there until 3 o’clock when I was taken out and hurried to Paducah. Mayfield was alive with people, and we had a hard time getting away. When we got to Paducah I found that I was followed by a Mayfield mob and there were also a lot of countrymen in the mob which formed who did not know what they were there for. “Well, I was put in jail after a hard struggle, but was only kept in the Paducah jail a short while, when I was taken out and driven in a carriage to a house a short distance from town. I was taken back to the jail yesterday morning and kept there until we started for Louisville. At the depot there was a good crowd, but I only saw a few Mayfield fellows. They spoke to me and that was all. “Now, I am just as innocent of this thing as anybody you ever saw,” said Stone, turning suddenly, “and I am talking plain to you. I did not do it, and the woman says I did not do it.” Sheriff W. R. Holland, of McCracken county, and Jailer Miller, of Paducah, who brought the negro who is accused of having committed the outrage, to Louisville last night, had an exciting time of it yesterday and Tuesday night. “When we heard that the mob was coming,” said Sheriff Holland at the Willard Hotel, “we hustled the prisoner out of the Paducah jail and took him to a private house. Then I went out and circulated among the mob, who were cursing their ill-luck in being unable to find the “black scoundrel,” as they called the negro. “‘If we could just find that Sheriff,’ said one member of the mob, ‘we would make him talk.’” Sheriff Holland says he was standing not ten feet from the man who spoke and could not help smiling. “This evening,” said he, “we took the prisoner to the train and got away without trouble because the mob was not on hand in force to make an attempt to secure their man. I think that if the Mayfield mob had been courageous they would have secured the negro before he was taken to Paducah.” That they did not get him is to the credit of Sheriff Cook of Graves county. He stood in the door of the car in which the negro was concealed and coolly said that the first man who attempted to enter would be killed. No one tried, and so the train pulled out with the much-wanted prisoner. I think the evidence against him is entirely circumstantial, although he can not prove where he was when the crime was committed. The Sheriff and Jailer will return to Paducah to-night. The next court there when the negro can be tried is in February.
Stone, Kentucky Post and Times Star, November 27, 1896
Hurried Away To Escape a Mob That Was Forming, ------- Fiend James Stone Taken to Louisville. Louisville, KY., Nov. 26.--James Stone, who is charged with the assault on Mrs. J. M. Green in Mayfield, was spirited to this city last night from Paducah. A mob was forming to hang the negro. Stone, who is a former convict, was restored to citizenship by Governor Bradley just before the election.
Stone, Louisville Courier Journal, December 20, 1896
STONE RETURNED TO MAYFIELD. Suspected of Attempting to Assault Mrs. J. M. R. Green. James Stone, the young colored man who was brought to this city several weeks ago to escape the vengeance of a mob, who believed him guilty of criminal assault upon Mrs. J. M. R. Green, wife of a prominent citizen of Mayfield, Ky., was taken back to Mayfield at 6:30 o’clock last evening for trial by Sheriff Cook, of Graves county, accompanied by W. S. Usher, who arrived in this city yesterday morning. They said it had been decided that the excitement had abated enough to permit of them returning the prisoner without there being any danger of his life.
Stone, Hopkinsville Kentuckian, November 27, 1896
Lynching Is In Order. A Mayfield Lady The Victim of a Brutal Negro. At eleven o’clock Monday night the wife of Prof. J. M. R. Green, of this city, was outraged by Jim Stone, a brutal negro living three miles south of town. At the hour named Mrs. Green was aroused from sleep by feeling the fingers of a man on her throat. She was unable to make an outcry, and her assailant presented a pistol, telling her he would kill her if she made an outcry. He then succeeded in accomplishing his purpose and escaping through a window, by which means he entered the house. Stone was arrested Tuesday and indications pointed strongly to a hanging that night, and a crowd was gathering for that purpose when the officers succeeded in taking the negro to Paducah and placing him in jail. The crowd followed on the midnight train, but when it arrived in Paducah, Stone had been taken to some other place and could not be found. It is the universal opinion that the negro is guilty and ought to be hung at once.--Mayfield Monitor. It is now known that the negro was taken to the country under guard for safe keeping. Prof. Green accompanied the mob to Paducah, carrying a rope in his hand. A special term of court may be called at once to indict and try the brute. Nothing but his speedy execution, by law or otherwise, will meet the requirements of the case. Stone was taken to Louisville Wednesday night and is now in jail there. He denies his guilt, of course, and now that he considers himself safe talks in a brazen way about the affair, referring to his victim as “the woman.” The Courier-Journal speaks of the rapist and ex-convict as “James Stone the young colored man charged with assault.” He is twenty-one years old and according to the same paper has “a good countenance.”
Stone, Richmond (KY) Climax, December 23, 1896
KENTUCKY NEWS. The Latest News From All Parts of the Commonwealth. ------------------ Jim Stone ----------------- In Danger of Lynching at Mayfield, Ky.-- A Mob Forming. Mayfield, Ky., Dec. 21.--Jim Stone, the Negro charged with outraging Mrs. J. M. R. Green, of this city, was brought here Sunday from Louisville, where he was taken when arrested to prevent a lynching. His examining trial is to take place Tuesday, but a mob is expect to lynch him before that time arrives. The indications here at 10:30 Sunday night were that Stone would certainly be lynched before morning. A great many strangers have arrived in town, but there are no groups and the town marshal is not called upon to arrest any disturbers. It was believed the men would form at a certain place at midnight. LOUISVIILLK [sic], Ky., Dec. 21.--It is reported here that Jim Stone, colored, in jail at Mayfield, charged with criminally assaulting Mrs. J. M. R. Green, November 20, was taken from his cell at 12:45 Monday morning and lynched.
Stone, Maysville Public Ledger, December 22, 1896
KENTUCKY NEWS. The Latest News From All Parts of the Commonwealth. ----------- PITCHED BATTLE ----------- Between Whites and Blacks at Mayfield Expected--Tom Chambers Burned to Death by a Mob. PADUCAH, KY., Dec. 22.--Passengers arriving on the train at 1 o’clock Tuesday morning report the burning to death of Tom Chambers by a mob at Mayfield Monday night. Part of the mob that lynched Stone Sunday night started to run some Negro characters out of town. Chambers kept a dive. The mob visited his place and set it on fire, burning also the wholesale beer house of B. F. Boaz. It is believed Chambers was in the house, and was burned to death. When the body of Jim Stone, who was hanged by a mob early Monday morning, was cut down it was found that a finger and toe had been cut off. Every one of the Negroes warned by the mob that hanged Stone, has bought himself a shotgun with which, he says, he will battle for his rights. Stone’s body was not cut down till nearly nine o’clock, and the greatest indignation is expressed by the Negroes generally because it was not removed from view before. Many of them are swearing vengeance, and an outbreak is not improbable at any time. Jim Stone made a statement to the effect that another Negro committed the crime, but the mob paid no attention to his words. The Negro offered prayer while knives were being plunged into his body, but to no avail. The mob was satisfied that he was guilty and would not listen to his pleading. While he was still praying the culprit was swung to a limb and his body riddled with bullets. The mob was particularly aggravated, as it was not Stone’s first offense, he having served a penitentiary sentence for a similar assault.