Murder at Grovespring

   My wife got a call yesterday from Grovespring, Missouri, which her phone identified as spam. So, she didn't answer the call, but she mentioned that she didn't even know where Grovespring was. I told her it was a few miles north of Hartville on Highway 5 and that I'd even been through there once upon a time. And that's how I arrived at the topic for my blog this week. I decided to write about Grovespring.
   A post office was established at the location in 1872, and it was called Grove Spring for the obvious reason that it was situated in a grove near a spring. By 1885, the community also included a general store, a flour mill, and a saw mill, all run by the same man. The name of the place was changed to Grovespring in the 1890s. Apparently Grovespring never amounted to much more than a wide place in the road, because, other than this scant information, I didn't find much about it. With one exception: at Christmastime 1913, a somewhat infamous murder occurred near the tiny village.
   About one o'clock in the afternoon on Monday, December 28, 1913, a young man named Samuel Henderson shot and killed an older man named Henry Johns at or near the home of Alex Weaver about three miles west of Grovespring. The twenty-year-old Henderson, who'd recently married Weaver's daughter, was at his father-in-law's house on the morning of the 28th when Johns, a local farmer and blacksmith, came riding by the Weaver place on a horse. He stopped, and he and Henderson exchanged heated words. Later in the day, Johns rode by the Weaver place again, and he and Henderson, who was carrying a shotgun, renewed their dispute. When Johns started to ride away, Henderson allegedly shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. As Johns fell from the horse, his foot caught in the stirrup, and he was dragged some distance before the horse halted. Henderson promptly sent word to the Wright County sheriff that he'd killed a man, and a deputy was dispatched to the scene to bring Henderson back to Hartville, where he was lodged in the county jail. Although the victim had been shot in the back of the head, Henderson disputed accusations of cold-blooded murder, claiming self-defense. He said he saw Johns reaching toward his pocket for what he thought was a gun, but the only weapon found on the dead man was a pocket knife.
   Details of what actually happened, including the cause of the argument that led to the shooting, were sketchy, because only Henderson and his kinfolk witnessed the affair. However, one initial report said the affray came about because of an "old trouble" between the two men. Specifically, "the name of Mrs. Henderson" (the shooter's 18-year-old wife) was said to have figured in the argument. Johns had allegedly made the remark sometime earlier that Henderson and his new bride "could not live together," which Henderson construed to mean that Johns himself would be the cause of the breakup.
   At Henderson's trial at Hartville in mid-April 1914, more details about the nature of the enmity between the two men came out. At least according to the defense, "improper relations" had existed between Johns and Henderson's young wife prior to her marriage to the defendant and Johns had suggested that he might renew those relations. The prosecution admitted that jealousy was a factor but denied the specific allegation that improper relations had existed between the victim and the young woman. The prosecution argued for a first-degree murder conviction, claiming that the defendant had shot the victim in the back without provocation as he was riding away. The defense, on the other hand, said the shot entered the victim's body as it did only because Johns turned or dodged just as Henderson fired his gun.
   Henderson was convicted but on a lesser charge of second-degree murder, and he was assessed 10 years in the state pen. He arrived at the Jefferson City facility on April 28, 1914, but his sentence was commuted by the governor four and a half years later and he was released on October 16, 1918.