Mason, James

James Mason

Walpole, NH

On New Year's Day 1936, James Mason, a Black farm hand employed by Dr. Ralph H. Knight, a retired dentist, was stabbed during an altercation at the Knight home in Walpole, NH. Mason, who was 30 years old and unmarried, died six days later at Rockingham Hospital in Bellows Falls, Vermont, of peritonitis caused by the wound. Knight was charged with manslaughter, stood trial in Cheshire County Superior Court in April 1936, and was acquitted.

According to Mason's death record, he was born around 1905 in Grafton, Massachusetts. Newspaper coverage of the case reported that he had previously lived in Baltimore, Maryland, where he had worked as a boxer, before coming to Walpole roughly two years before his death to work on Knight's farm.

Trial testimony offered conflicting accounts of what happened on New Year's night. Knight testified that Mason had twice threatened to kill him and had twice attacked him, breaking his nose on both occasions, and that he had snatched up a Civil War-era musket in self-defense and stabbed Mason with the bayonet attached to it. Knight's wife, Frederica, testified that she awoke to find Mason kicking her husband. The state presented a different account: Sheriff Frank J. Bennett testified that the fatal blow had actually been intended for Mrs. Knight and that Mason had stepped between husband and wife to shield her, and the prosecution alleged that Mrs. Knight had become "infatuated and familiar" with Mason, a claim she denied at trial.

The case drew coverage not only in New Hampshire and Vermont papers but in the Black press nationally. The Black Dispatch of Oklahoma City covered Knight's acquittal under the headline "Free Dentist — Slew Colored Man," bringing the case to the attention of Black readers far beyond New England.

Capital Hill Beacon (Oklahoma City, OK), Fri. April 3, 1936, p. 2.

The Portsmouth Herald (Portsmouth, NH), Thurs. April 2, 1936, p5.

GENEALOGY

JAMES MASON was born c.1905, possibly in Grafton, MA. He died on January 6, 1936 in Bellows Falls, VT.

SOURCE MATERIALS

Dentist acquitted in Negro's death. (1936, April 3). Capitol Hill Beacon (Oklahoma City), p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/836120186/

Dr. Ralph Knight, retired Walpole dentist, charged with assault with intent to kill wife and servant. (1936, January 2). Keene Evening Sentinel, p. 1.

Free dentist — slew colored man. (1936, April 16). The Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City), pp. 1–2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/872039199/

Knight held in $2,500 bail. (1936, January 9). The Portsmouth Herald, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/56497566/

Makes plea of not guilty. (1936, January 8). The Portsmouth Herald, p. 1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/56497351/

Says Mason threatened to kill him: Keene dentist takes stand in own defense. (1936, April 2). The Portsmouth Herald, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/56509228/

Town of Walpole, NH. (1936). Death record for James Mason [Vital record].