Auntie Jen's Family Trees: Week 45: Rich Man

Monday, November 4, 2019

Week 45: Rich Man

This week's prompt for the 52 Ancestors Challenge is Rich Man. Out of all the research I've done on my family and my husband's family, there is only one man that can even come close to this title. That man is Thomas H. Swope, my husband's 1st cousin 4x removed. I know I had to go around a long way to get to that one. The reason I know about him is there is a story behind him.

Col. Thomas Hunton Swope was one of Kansas City, Missouri's most prosperous land developers, who donated tracts of land for a hospital and a city park. Born in Kentucky in 1827, the Yale-educated Thomas Swope speculated in mining and real estate in New York and St. Louis before moving to Kansas City at the age of 30. Once there, Swope entered into the real estate business and eventually owned more land than anyone else in the city. One of his most notable real estate ventures, known as "Swope's Addition," was located at 10th Street and Grand Avenue. [1]
Swope is best remembered today not for his real estate activities, but for his gift of Swope Park to Kansas City. The park's expansive 1,334 acres, located adjacent to the Blue River, provided a space where eventually the city's residents could enjoy picnics, a night

at Starlight Theater, trips to the Swope Park Zoo (now the Kansas City Zoo), and golfing. When the park opened in 1896, nearly 18,000 people arrived to celebrate. Swope, who was a bachelor, lived in an Independence, Missouri mansion with other family members. [1]
Over a hundred years ago, however, mention of the name "Swope" would instantly summon conversations about a string of mysterious deaths in the Swope family. On October 3, 1909, just two days after the unexpected death of the executor of Swope's will, Thomas Swope himself died of an apparent "cerebral hemorrhage."

More family died while others became violently ill within a very short time of each other. Suspicion fell upon the family doctor, who was also Thomas Hunton Swope's nephew, Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde. Hyde was charged, tried and convicted on May 16, 1910, of the murder of Thomas Swope.[1] On appeal, the verdict was overturned on procedural grounds. Three more trials, seven years and a quarter of a million dollars later, the charges against Hyde were dropped and he was released. [2] To learn more about this tragic story, pick up the book, Deaths on Pleasant Street by Giles Fowler
Eight and a half years after his death, Col. Thomas Swope was laid to rest in Swope Park. On April 8, 1918, he was buried high on a hill amid a forest of trees, overlooking his gift to Kansas City. His remains lie beneath a Greek temple of white granite, guarded by a pair of stone lions.