The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1909-10-01
KILLS HIS DAUGHTER
and THEN SELF
Bloody IDonhls Crime Of i Trouble
Crazed Farmer,
SHOOTS At HIS CRIPPLED WIFE.
Efforts OF Mrs. Grover TO Prevent
Her Husbands Suicide Leads
Him To Attempt To Exterminate
The Family Crippled Woman's
Lonely Vigil With The Dead And
Her Pitiful Flight Across The
Fields When The Horror OF The
Situation Overcame Her.

Fields When The Horror OF The
Situation Overcame Her.
Richmond, Va. Especially. So Des-
pendent because Of financial reverses,
over which he had brooded for many
sleepless nights, and probably tenn
porarily insane through the same
cause, W.. B. Grover, a well-known
farmer of Chesterfield County, about
to be thwarted in his desire to put
an end to his own life by his wife and
daughter, attempted to exterminate
his entire family, succeeded in slay-
ing his 20-year-old daugter, Louise,
attempted to kill his wife, at whom
he fired point blank with the same
weapon that had ended the girls life,
and then sped bullet into his own
brain.
I The father and daughter died to-
gether upon the bedroom floor, leav-
ing the crippled wife and mother
alone in house of horrors.
1t was between one and two o'clock
A. NJ, when Grover, awakened from
a troubled sleep. by the rumbliRg Of
passing trolley car, determined
upon suicide in order to end his own
troubles. Dressing and securing his
revolver, he told his wife that he
was going out into the yard. Read
ing his purpose in his eyes Mrs. Grow
er crawled painfully from her bed
and started to accompany him. He
ordered her back to bed, telling her
finally that he intended to end it all.
Miss Grover, hearing the commo-
ton came from her bedroom on the
floor above and entered the room oc-
cupied by her parents. Seeing then
that he would not be allowed to
carry out his intentions regarding
himself Grover determined to usher
his entire family into eternity with
him.
She Pied In Vain.
He killed his daughter first, shoot
ing her. as she turned from him at
the threshold of his bedroom door.
He then made vain attempt upon
the life of his wife, trying to shoot
her first in the room, when his pistol
became broken in the scuffle, and
again is the hall, when she fed
from him, after a sharp struggle, and
while the woman upon her knees was.
pleading vainly for her life.
Thinking that his wife was dead,
the man went back into his bedroom.
and fired a bullet into. his own. brain,
his body falling at right angles to
that of his daughter, their. feet
touching, their blood mingling to-
gether in dark pool that spread far
over the floor. s.
Out in the yard, to which she had
crawled in her terror, and with not q
human soul living within sound of
her voice, Mrs. Grover shrieked in
her agony until an answering cry
came from Lewis Preston, a.
negro who, with his dogs, was
.possum hunting In the neighbor-i
hood. Mrs. Grover had seen the light
carried by the man. She redoubled
her cries until he came to her, when
she told him that her husband had
killed her dauhter and himself and
begged him to go for assistance.
Preston ran to the home of w. p.
Shonway, three-quarters of mile
distant, aroused his family, whom he
told that something awful had hap
'pened at the home of the Growers,
but they doubted the mans story and
sent him still further upon his way.
Alone With The Dead.
III Lie mS6uLAIuG MIS- OEUV0I, IOO
frightened to stay longer in the
neighborhood of aer now desolatei
home, with only a thin skirt over her
night dress, without shoes and with
out covering for her shoulders, start
ed alone for help. Suffering with a
dislocated hip, which had made her
an invalid for many months, and
without even the assistance of her
crutch, the woman made her way
painfully across lonely fields, her
fear of the night being as nothing to
the dread Of what she had left behind
her. She managed to crawl somehow
the intervening distance to the home
of the Shonways, falling in collapse
across their doorway.
Sobbing Historically, she managed
to tell what had occurred.
In the meantime the negro had
gone on to the home of w. M Willis,
whom he aroused with the story of
the tragedy The men of both house
holds at once started for the scene,
a carriage being placed at the dis
posal of Mrs. Grover
The bodies were still warm when
the parties arrived at the Grover
home, but. both father and daughter
had. evidently died instantly.