A Georgian in Uhrichsville: The Murder of Mayfield Mallory

During the Great Migration, a period of American history when millions of Black southerners moved to find work in the industrialized cities of the north, many found themselves in the Twin Cities of Dennison and Uhrichsville, Ohio. This is the sad story of one of those men.

According to United States Census records, in 1920 the Black population in Tuscarawas County, Ohio numbered over 5,200+ men, women, and children. Many of them came to the Twin Cities to work for the railroad, mines and manufactories there. Among the recent arrivals in 1923 was a married Georgia man named Mayfield Mallory (1890-1923) with a wife and two children to support at home in Atlanta. Mayfield, since the early 1910s, worked as a laborer and shop foreman for the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railroad and it was likely the opportunity to work on the railroad in Ohio, as well as a brother-in-law that lived there, that brought him to Uhrichsville in October 1923.

Mayfield Mallory (1890–1923) was born in Vinings, Georgia, to Henry and Sallie Mallory, both Georgia natives who were born enslaved. Raised in a family that owned their home, Mayfield began his working life as a laborer and eventually found employment with the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railroad. He moved briefly around 1910, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, but returned to Georgia by 1917, when he registered for the World War I draft. It was around this time that he married Josie Bevers (1899-?), and the couple welcomed their first child in 1919. The Mallorys lived in the Bolton Village neighborhood of Atlanta in 1920, where Mayfield worked as a shop keeper for the railroad.

Just a week or so after Mayfield Mallory’s arrival another Black man named William Lee Stone (1867-1947) appeared in Uhrichsville. Stone was born in Franklin County, Virginia, to John Ennis Stone and Sally Matilda Edwards Stone, both natives of Virginia who were born enslaved. Raised in a farming household, he lived with his family in Roanoke County, Virginia in 1880. William married Sallie Betty Lemon (1872-1944) in Virginia in 1903; it marked a second marriage for both. William moved to Fayette County, Pennsylvania by 1910 where he worked as a farmer and lived with his wife, two children from a previous marriage, and two from his current union. At some point in William’s life he lost one of his legs below the knee and used a cork leg replacement. The family resided in Uniontown, Pennsylvania in 1920, where William worked as a coal miner and lived in a home he owned with his wife and children.

Somehow, on the evening of Sunday, October 28, 1923, the two men found themselves at the home of Henry Odoms on Herrick Street in Uhrichsville. According to witnesses, including Mallory’s sister-in-law, Mallory and Stone became involved in an argument inside Odoms’ home. It was reported that the men then went outside and Stone drew a gun and shot at the unarmed Mallory numerous times as Mallory attempted to flee. Despite his cork leg, Stone caught up to Mallory, who turned and tried to confront him. Powder burns on Mallory’s shirt indicated that the fatal shot was fired at close range, with the gun possibly pressed against his chest.

William Stone was arrested the following morning north of Dover, Ohio and, when questioned, claimed that he had acted in self-defense. He entered a plea of not guilty to an initial charge of first degree murder before ultimately being indicted for second degree murder by a grand jury in January 1924. Stone’s trial took place in February 1924 but the jury refused to convict on the charge of second degree murder. Stone was instead convicted of assault and battery, fined $200 (equal to about $3,700 today), and was held in the Tuscarawas County Jail until released in October 1924.

After his murder, and the autopsy was completed, Mayfield Mallory’s body was shipped back to his family in Atlanta, Georgia for burial. His final resting place, however, remains undocumented. After his release from the Tuscarawas County Jail, William Stone returned to his family in Uniontown, Pennsylvania and continued to work in the local coal mines. Stone died in November 1947 and was buried at the Clearview Cemetery in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Mayfield Mallory’s murder and the minimal consequences faced by his killer reveal the painful reality of what passed for justice in the 1920s.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2025.