Back in July 2022, my hubby and I took a Family History Trip for a vacation to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary. We've wanted to return to western Missouri to do more family history research for years. Specifically, the towns of Independence, Liberty, and Plattsburg. Things finally lined up for us to travel, so we went! Since we've been back, I've been trying to go through all the photographs, videos, and research I accumulated. The trip was a whirlwind, and I can't wait to share it all with you.
To start at the beginning of our journey, click the link below:
Day 1 - Traveling & Arriving in Independence
Day 2 - Exploring Independence
If there is one thing I learned from this day of the trip, it is not everything goes as planned. Something to know about me: I am a planner. I like to have an itinerary. I want to be prepared for things. I had this whole trip planned out of where we would stop and when. So needless to say, when things don't go as I plan, I don't like it very much. Ok, I REALLY don't like it. I hear my husband in the background saying, "Uh yeah, you really, really don't like it!" Now, I can handle SOME changes. The ones I can control. Like the first place that we decided to add to our itinerary.
I had forgotten that President Harry S. Truman lived in Independence for most of his life. So many historical sites are set up for visitors such as President Truman's home, The Harry. S. Truman Library and Museum, The Noland Home, and more. His house is listed on Missouri's National Historical Sites and maintained by the National Park Service. To visit the home, you need to purchase tickets from the Truman Home Visitor's Center at 223 North Main Street in Independence. There is also a gift shop attached to the visitor's center along with a short video you can watch about President Truman.
Honestly, Mark and I could come back and just stay in Independence for a few days checking out the historical sites. But we have different plans for this trip. Yet, since we were right there, and there was still time before the Jackson County Historical Society would be open, we decided to stop at the Truman Home Visitor's Center for a few minutes. I was able to get my National Parks Passport stamped since the Truman Home Visitor's Center is listed as part of America's National Parks. Are you familiar with the Passport program? If you plan on taking trips to some national parks either by yourself or with the kids, I recommend picking up one of these passports. It's just for fun, but a great souvenir.
Ok, on to the Jackson County Historical Society, which was in the square, literally right across the street from the Visitor's Center. They open at 10:00am. Or so I thought...
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| Historic Truman Courthouse Independence, Missouri |
We walked up to the doors of the courthouse and they were locked. Hmm... ok maybe the other doors on the other side? Nope, they were locked too. Why? What happened? They should be open. Did I miss something? I checked their website. Yes, they should be open Monday through Saturday... wait... oh no. I didn't realize what day it was. It was Sunday. No wonder the square in town was literally, EMPTY! Nothing was open. It's like the whole square shut down for Sunday. Including the one restaurant that we planned to eat at for dinner. Cue the mental breakdown. I literally had to sit in the car for a few minutes to calm down. I was hoping to gather some information about the Swope family, including photographs. I was so frustrated.
After a few minutes of breathing, I knew we could still make this a productive day. We decided to go on and head to Mount Washington Cemetery to visit the graves of the Swope Family; the main reason we were in Independence. Oh let me tell you, I wasn't prepared for the size of this cemetery. The maps online didn't really give me a clue about what I would be dealing with. The cemetery is about 400 acres. Yes, you read that right. There are about 43,000 people buried in this cemetery. Holy cow! Now, yes I did reach out to the cemetery to ask about the location of the Swopes, but I got nothing back before we traveled. Since I didn't want to be looking for a needle in a haystack, I decided to check out their Find A Grave memorials for any information I could glean. Turns out, someone had included the section in which they were buried. Score! They were buried in the Garden of Memories section! I found a map online that showed the different sections of the cemetery. We used that to navigate to the section where the Swope family was buried. So here we go!
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| Map of Mt. Washington Cemetery Path to section marked in red |
The drive was beautiful. The cemetery used to be a park and fairground in the early 1900s before the Mount Washington Cemetery Association purchased the land. They utilized the rolling hills for Masouleums, and they designed beautiful buildings throughout the park for funerals. After many twists and turns (and hills) we located the Garden of Memories section. Ok, now to find where the Swopes were buried. They were a decently prominent family, so I thought they would have a huge headstone that says "Swope".
Yeah, no. That wasn't the case. We walked the whole section multiple times looking for a huge stone that said "Swope". I took one side, my hubby took the other and we just walked, and walked. Finally, I told him I was done. I sat down and waited for him to bring my van over to me. I was tired and sore. All of a sudden he called me and said he found a headstone that says "Chrisman" on it. Well, Maggie Swope was once a Chrisman. Maybe that's family. So we go over there. He said he looked around and couldn't find any Swopes but found this. I started walking the section and, would you believe, a few feet over, there were the Swopes. Oh, my, Gosh!! We both walked right past them since they were by the road. We were so focused on looking for a big "Swope" headstone that we were blind. My hubby was so mad at himself.
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| Swope/Chrisman Family Plots Mount Washington Cemetery Independence, Missouri |
Mark, my husband, is related to the Swope family through his maternal line. His mom, Mildred, was a Swope. She was the one who originally told us about the scandal in the family from the early 1900s, but she didn't know the details or how they were related. So I traced the lines to find out how they were related. Today, we were visiting the graves of Maggie Chrisman Swope, her husband Logan, and her children. Mark is Maggie & Logan's 1st cousin 4x removed. (Ancestry told me that, I didn't figure that out on my own haha).
Maggie and her children were the targets of Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde. His goal was to kill off the family so he would inherit the family fortune of Col. Thomas Hunton Swope. This resulted in the deaths of Col. Swope, one of Maggie's sons William Chrisman, and a cousin/friend James Moss Hunton who was a guardian of Col. Swope. The rest of the family was ill at some point, almost to the point of death at times. After much suspicion had arisen, Maggie removed Dr. Hyde and contacted a prosecutor. She was the driving force behind trying to prosecute Dr. Hyde for what he did to the family.
This story is one of the best crime dramas you could read about. And it's a true story about our family! Now, there is no way I could ever go into the details of this story sufficiently. So I recommend reading the book, "Deaths on Pleasant Street: The Ghastly Enigma of Colonel Swope and Dr. Hyde" by Giles Fowler. The author was a journalist and a teacher who studied the case files in depth to create a narrative that is detailed and truthful. He presents the facts but leaves unanswered questions for you to figure out. The book is hard to get sometimes as the author has since passed away, but if you are able, I absolutely recommend picking up this book.
Once we found the graves, we spent some time filming, photographing, and just admiring the area. It was beautiful and peaceful. You can watch Episode 2 in my series, "Grave Hunting with Auntie Jen" where I feature this Swope family.
Honestly, Mark and I could have spent many more hours exploring this cemetery just for the architecture, but it was past lunchtime and we were getting hungry. We planned on doing a wine tasting at Mallinson Winery, where we were staying, and just eating some snacks during the tasting. We are not big wine drinkers, but since we are staying at a romantic winery, why not have a romantic wine tasting together? So back to the Norton House & Mallinson Winery.
Trigger the next crisis. After taking a few photos, we walked up to the winery only to find a sign that stated they were closed for a private event. Wait, what? We were not informed of this when we booked. Now, I was getting angry. This time it definitely wasn't my fault. I finally found someone who walked out and saw how angry I was. She asked if there was anything she could help me with. I explained our situation and how I was not informed when we booked. And this was supposed to be a memorable weekend for our anniversary. We were about to leave when she offered to do a private wine tasting for us. I was blown away. So we accepted and went inside.
It was a really nice time. We got to learn about how the winery got started and were able to try some of their specialty wines. I was looking to hopefully purchase a couple for some special evening with my hubby. We actually purchased quite a few bottles. They were really tasty. And like I said before, we are not big wine drinkers, but I really enjoyed these. I was really grateful that one of the owners offered us a private tasting. It really helped make the day better after some rough starts.
Since there wasn't much as far as snacks at our wine tasting, we decided to go ahead and have a late lunch/early dinner. Unfortunately, as I said earlier since it was Sunday, everything in the square was closed, including the place we wanted to try for dinner. They recently changed their hours to be closed on Sundays. We decided to then just eat somewhere we were familiar with: Outback Steakhouse. Always a good choice. And the dessert we ordered... oh my gosh!
Chocolate makes everything better right? Definitely felt refreshed... and full! We couldn't finish this dessert, but we sure tried. But we still weren't done for the day, so on we go. We had two more tasks to complete before sundown.
First, we needed to track down where the Swope Mansion used to be located. This is where the murders of William Chrisman Swope, Col. Thomas Hunton Swope, and James Moss Hunton took place. The mansion was torn down in the 1950s after falling into disrepair. I brought with me some documents to help me pinpoint the original location.
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| Swope Mansion JCHS Archives |
Back in July of 1947, the Kansas City Star ran an article about the Swope Mansion, tragedies that occurred there, and what eventually happened to the property. The financial stress of the trials against Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde played a major role in what happened to the mansion. Poor Maggie was depleted of all her money. She couldn't keep up with the mansion anymore and was forced to sell it. The Church of Latter-Day Saints purchased the property from Mrs. Swope in 1923 and used the building for schools and missions.
We pulled up to the property area which is part of the RV park and found a sign from the Church of Latter-Day Saints. So we definitely found the location where the mansion once stood. The article explains that "A winding asphalt driveway, built for horse-drawn carriages, extends nearly a city block to the front door..." This means that the house sat more toward the back (north) of the property. See the map below. The red pinpoint is supposed to be 406 South Pleasant Street. The red square is the approximate property line. I'm not sure how far back the property went without further research, which would require me to visit the Jackson County Historical Society and the Midwest Genealogy Center.
We also talked with the property owner of the RV Park and he confirmed that I was thinking about the house being further back on the property. He was very pleasant and helpful. He enjoyed looking at the article I had with me. After our conversation, was drove around the property filming a bit before heading to our next destination.
By now the sun was setting and it was getting dark. But we still had enough light for our last task of the day. When I went through all the photos in my Mother-in-law's photo albums, I noticed some photos of the locations we were hoping to visit on our trip. So I told Mark I wanted to recreate these photos. He was so down with this idea. Our first stop was the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. Mark's grandparents had taken a photo of themselves in front of the library back in 1965. The beauty of waiting until the library was closed was we were able to get a photo with no one else in the background.
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While this day didn't start off on the best note, it ended with a beautiful sunset. Our time in Independence had come to an end. Tomorrow we would be heading to the Swope Memorial and then to Liberty, Missouri. We definitely will be making a trip back to Independence sometime in the future to explore more of the historical sites, libraries, and historical society.
Don't forget to check out the Day 2 Vlog once it comes out as well as Day 3 Blog entry.
