An overturned grave marker in Welch Cemetery near Summersville in Shannon County memorializes Peter Renfrow, whose life was profoundly altered by his crime and its aftermath. These events established Renfrow in local legends and lore so that many know of him to this day.
The story begins July 25, 1888, after a local justice tried a lawsuit against Renfrow’s brother, Will, in Summersville. Will became angry with John Hughes, a witness in the lawsuit. Later, the brothers met Hughes on the street, and Will began beating him. Both Renfrows were intoxicated. The constable of Carroll Township, Charley Dorris, placed Will under arrest, then noticed Pete drew a pistol. Dorris stepped toward Pete, who fired, striking the constable in the forehead over his left eye. Dorris’s father was nearby, and attempted to catch the falling man, but failed. Dorris died in an hour, having never regained consciousness. Renfrow fled but surrendered to authorities five days later and was moved to Springfield on a change of venue, the charge being first degree murder.
Renfrow’s trial was scheduled for late 1889, but before it occurred, he and several other prisoners escaped from the Springfield jail. The supposition was that he fled the area, but word began spreading that he was in his old neighborhood near Summersville, hiding in a cave. The cave opened on a cliff face reportedly only accessible from above. It supposedly had several openings at other places, but no one knew the cave except Renfrow’s friends who brought him food. Renfrow possessed a Winchester rifle, two revolvers, and a dog for a companion. After about a year, two of Renfrow’s cousins and a deputy sheriff waited until Renfrow fell asleep in the cave’s mouth one evening. The men jumped on Renfrow from above and subdued him. Once again, the lawmen took him to Springfield on August 6, 1891.
This time his trial occurred, the jury found him guilty, and his hanging was scheduled for October 9, 1891. Stays of execution delayed this for over a year, until February 7, 1893. However, on January 22, a mass jail break occurred at the Springfield jail, and Renfrow disappeared once again.
He hid, by some accounts, in a cave once again. News of Renfrow gradually faded away over the next five years. Apparently, he left his underground hideout at some point, because Deputy U.S. Marshal Brown of Springfield finally re-captured him. He had married and lived with his wife at the old Doniphan club house in northern Ripley County.
Renfrow returned to Springfield for resentencing. By this time, many officials and local people thought the governor should commute his sentence to life imprisonment. Evidence suggested that Renfrow planned no murder that day, but his intoxication and the heat of the moment resulted in the crime. Indeed, Governor Lawrence Vest Stephens commuted the sentence to 25 years in the state penitentiary on May 17, 1898. By 1905, a petition by local officials and residents went to Governor Alexander M. Dockery to pardon Renfrow. Dockery instead commuted his sentence to end in May 1905.
Later that summer, the Springfield Leader and Press noted that Renfrow attended an Independence Day barbeque. The article briefly summarized his story and ended by wishing that he settle down and live a useful life. Renfrow did live the rest of his life quietly, but he left behind the local legend of the man who hid from the law in a cave, and at least two caves in the area bear his name today.
