Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME XVI.
INDIAN MAID
PUT CURSE
ON SWOPE
MILLIONS?
HANSAS CITY, MO.—ls it
wasn’t an Indian maiden’s
curse, in the name of
goodness what was it that
laid a withering blight on
the house of Swope and
made it a house of death, of misfor
tune, of tragedy?
In the east the name of Swope
means not so much; in the west it has
a ring such as the name of Astor or
Goelet has in New York, for Col.
Thomas H. Swope, either through cal
culating shrewdness or ignorant luck,
sat himself down on cheap-bought
acres upon which Kansas City was to
rise.
The story of money-getting is al
ways more real than romantic. People
came and lifted Colonel Swope out of
his cowhide boots and stood him in
patent leathers; they touched his
hard-grubbed two-bit piece and it be
came gold. There’s a talisman in
gravel as well as in other things.
If you ask a grizzled pioneer of the
Sni Hills —river bluffs where Kansas
City rises—to tell the story of the
curse, he works back to it, noting the
incidents on knotted fingers. And it
runs this way:
Roll of Death and Disaster.
Logan O. Swope, only brothc* of the
millionaire, died in Independence, Mo.,
in the prime of life.
Moss Hunton, confidential agent and
adviser of Colonel Swope, died mys
teriously two years ago.
Col. Thomas H. Swope, head of the
house, alleged to have been poisoned
with cyanide of potassium adminis
tered by Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde, died
two weeks after Hunton’s death.
Chrisman Swope, nephew, died of
typhoid fever contracted from germs
alleged to have been administered
hypodermically by Dr. Hyde.
Lucy Lee Swope, niece, was barely
saved from death by typhoid contract
ed, it is charged, while journeying
from New York to Kansas City with
Dr. Hyde. Hyde was accused of ad
ministering germs in drinking water
on the train.
Thomas Swope, nephew, arm blown
off by accidental discharge of shotgun
while hunting.
Mrs. -Margaret O. Swope, widow of
Logan O. Swope and sister-in-law of
Colonel Swope, now suffering from
ndivous prostration and general break
down.
Dr. Bennett Clarke Hyde, husband
of Frances Swope, niece of dead mil
lionaire, indicted on eleven counts for
the murder of Moss Hunton, Col.
Thomas H. Swope and Chrismas
Swope and for administering typhoid
germs to Lucy Lee Swope and other
members of the Swope family; once
found guilty and sentenced to life im
prisonment on the Colonel Swope in
dictment; in jail for one year; ver
dict reversed and case remanded for
new trial; now out on $50,000 bail.
Frances Swope, wife of Dr. Hyde,
estranged from her family because she
has stood steadfast for her husband
and has spent much of her share of
the Swope millions in trying to prove
his innocence.
Son of Dr. and Mrs. Hyde and grand
nephew of Colonel Swope died a few
hours after birth while Hyde was in
jail. The doctor was permitted to
visit his wife during her sickness,
but arrived some time after the child
had died.
Foundation of Swope Fortunes.
Elmer Swope of Virginia, who
claims to be a son of Col. Thomas H.
Swope by a marriage contracted while
the millionaire was in east in 1861,
is suing for the bulk of what is left
of the Swope fortune. The case goes
to trial in a few weeks.
In the fifties Tom Swope came to
Kansas City, then a dot on the Mis
souri river known as Westport Land
ing. Reared on a farm in the east,
he soon, for a few dollars, acquired
one of his own in the new country.
He bought with no eye to the future
great city. He planned only for a
farm, but he wanted a big one. Hav
ing laid out a homestead he began
looking about for multiples of his orig
inal 160 acres. Ready money was
scarce in that country to all save
Swope. Waist-high prairie grass
stretched for miles and no one knew
the real value of the land. This gave
Swope the opportunity he wanted. He
bought on all sides until it was half
an hour’s gallop across his holdings.
Between his farm and a tract he had
purchased lay many acres to which
an Indian girl held title, which had
descended to her from ancestors.
Young Swope coveted this ground and
finally secured it. Whether a few
beads and blankets and gawdy shawls
were the purchase price or whether
the maid was induced by honeyed
words spoken while the lovelieht
Smtninti bulletin-
NUMBER 47.
Home of Col. Thomas H. Swope at Independence, Mo.
blinded her eyes to sign away her
rights is not so important. They did
business both ways half a century
ago. Anyway, he got it, and a bar
gain is a bargain.
The Outraged Indian Maiden.
Thus, according to the story which
is made authentic by many confirma
tory nods of heads, Tom Swope made
the one real mistake of his life. Red
skins were as numerous as palefaces
in the border country when he set
tled there, and it would have been to
his advantage to have steered clear
of any transaction which did not car
ry with it a puff of the pipe of peace.
By and by the girl set up the plea
that she had been duped and asked
that the land of her fathers be re
turned to her. But as he laughed she
cursed him and all his house:
“May fortune smile upon him only
to blight him and his. Hear the prayer
of an Indian maid who has lost to this
man the land of her fathers.”
Swope’s neighbors knew the anger
of the girl. They knew of the curse.
But if he ever heard it he never by
any act betrayed the knowledge.
Millionaire Without Effort.
The years rolled by, the people
came, they built a great city around
the Swope farms. His pastures were
cut into streets, his wheat fields into
building lots. His homestead became
a business center. A bank rose on
the site of his cowshed. He became
a millionaire almost without the turn
of a hand.
Landless, farmless, the result of a
city’s growth, he seemed scarcely to
know what to do with his vast for
tune. Almost in sadness he walked
the streets where once he had
ploughed and sown and reaped.
Wealth appeared to bring him no hap
piness. Always a hard working man,
he found little joy in a life of idle
ness. Apparently he longed for the
strenuous years of his youth. What
few times he came downtown in his
later years he found himself in a city
of strangers. Old friends w’ere gone;
he made few new ones. His was a
solitary figure that not many recog
nized.
Kindly of heart, he gave thousands
away, but without much system or
reason. He had too much money. It
worries him. It was a burden. Thir
teen hundred acres, lying along the
Blue river and adjacent to Kansas
City, he gave to the people for a
park, which bears his name. He
gave to charities and to all public
funds. Yet he kept in the back
ground and appeared to gain no hap
piness even from philanthropy.
He was a sombre man, gloomy,
alone. The curse had begun to work.
His brother was dead, leaving a
large family in a beautiful home on
Pleasant street in Independence, nine
miles as the crow flies and the trolley
car runs from Kansas City.
Thither went Colonel Swope to
live, and thither he took Moss Hun
ton, his friend and counsellor.
It was in Independence that trou
bles began to crowd upon the gen
erous old colonel. One day in turn
ing the calendar he came to a sum
mer month illuminated with the draw
ing of an Indian girl’s head. The
colonel looked at it from different
angles and then tore it from its
place.
Enter Dr. Hyde.
Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde, well-known
physician of Kansas Cify, had wooed
and won Frances Swope, niece of the
millionaire, against the wishes of the
girl’s family. This estrangement was
patched up and Hyde was the family
IRWINTON, WILKINSON COUNTY, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 1911.
physician of the Swopes when Hun
ton died suddenly and under circum
stances later termed "suspicious and
mysterious.” A few weeks later
Colonel Swope, apparently overconje
by the death of his companion, passed
away. And then Chrisman Swope, the
nephew.
These three deaths, followed by an
epidemic of typhoid that threatened to
-wipe out the entire Swope family, re
sulted in a rigid investigation. Dr.
Hyde’s name was dragged into the in
quiry and he promptly sued the ex
ecutors of the Swope estate for SIOO,-
000 damages.
While the damage suit was peml
ing And while small fortunes were
going for attorneys’ fees Hyde was
indicted on the charge of poisoning
Moss Hunton and Colonel Swope,
Lucy Lee Swope and others with
typhoid germs.
A Trial and Counter-Trial.
Hyde dropped his damage suit for
the more important labor of saving
himself from the gallows or the peni
tentiary. The dollars began to pour
out. The executors employed the best
legal talent in two states to assist the
prosecution. Mrs. Margaret Swope
turned loose many of her thousands in
an effort to punish the man she
thought had murdered her son and
brother-in-law, even though that man
was the husband of her daughter and
the father of her expected grandchild.
Frances Swope dug deep into her
thousands to defend her husband.
The trial was long-drawn and bit
ter. The one-armed son, whose injury
added but another to the list of tragic
events, sat by his mother’s side,
flanked by the sisters who had been
victims of the typhoid epidemic. At
another table sat Dr. Hyde and his
wife, the woman this time estranged
forever from her mother, brother and
sisters.
A conviction was the result, but the
case went to the highest court, which
promptly reversed the decision and
remanded the case for new trial.
Now it must all be done over again;
more thousands must be spent; there
will be more bitterness; the gulf of
estrangement will only be widened.
The grandson, whose baby hands
and baby smile might have smoothed
everything, lived but a few hours. His
father was in jail, his mother prac
tically alone, except for physicians
and nurses. One more tragedy to
write into the growing record.
And so the tragic story rounds itself
out. The graybeards shake their
heads and say Tom might better not
have done it —meaning, of course,
drive the sharp bargain with the red
skinned daughter of the prairies and
thereafter give no heed to her plead
ing.
Back in the hills visitors have
pointed out to them a few grass-cov
ered mounds where the bones of the
Indian lie. In one of these graves are
the remains of the girl from whom
Swope pieced out his acres and turned
her first to grief and then to anger.
Believe it or not, as you may, it’s
better not to have a curse on your
head, and an Indian’s curse is as bad
as any.—New York World.
Brooding Had Turned Brain.
An express on its way to Lyons,
France, was stopped the other morn
ing by a lunatic, who stood on the
line waving a red flag. Subsequent
investigation showed that the man had
gone mad through reading about rail
way strikes and acts of wreckage by
strikers.
We
Got to
MOVE!
Why not come in and look
at the low prices we are
making on our present stock
of goods.
Did You Ever Move?
- The trouble and expense
attached===the worries—are
many. We’ve got lots of
goods —stuff that will just
help you over the summer —
and as it’s late we are going
to cut the price—then, too,
we don’t want to move these
goods. Come, let’s look
these values over. If you
do we sure will sell you
your needs.
Our new home after Sept,
i, entire “Ohlman Building.”
Your friends,
W. S. Myrick & Co.
$1.09 A YEAR.
