Thomas H. Swope

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Thomas Hunton Swope (1896-1909) was a real estate magnate and philanthropist in Kansas City, Missouri.

Born in Kentucky on October 21, 1827, Thomas Swope was a Yale graduate with money to invest when he came west in 1855 as the Kansas Territory opened. By age 30, Colonel Swope was a wealthy man, due largely to his early downtown real state investments. In 1896, the seventy year old Swope gave Kansas City one of the largest municipal parks in America. Swope Park, 1350 rolling wooded acres lying four miles southeast of town, made his name famous.

But Swope’s name is perhaps more famous for the mysterious circumstances surrounding his sudden illness and demise than for his incredible gift to Kansas City. Swope was known to be mild-mannered and self-conscious, and was a lifelong bachelor. He lived alone until later in life when he moved into the turreted red brick mansion of his late brother in Independence, Missouri. From his sister-in-law’s house, home to seven nieces and nephews, the frugal millionaire commuted daily by streetcar to his downtown Kansas City office in the New England Life building until the month before his death. Swope’s last days were preoccupied with how best to bestow his wealth. His real estate alone was worth three and a half million dollars. Usually given to self-doctoring, in his last days Swope allowed himself to be treated by Dr. Bennett Clark Hyde, who had married one of his young nieces. On October 3, 1909, just 18 days short of his 82nd birthday, Col. Swope died suddenly in his sister-in-law’s home with Dr. Hyde in attendance, the aftermath of a perplexing, brief and violent illness. Swope's body lay in state at the Public Library where thousands of mourners paid their respects. Until a tomb could be prepared in Swope Park where he had requested burial, he lay in a holding vault.

Three months after Swope's death, Dr. Hyde came under suspicion and was charged with murder by strychnine poisoning in “a plot for money.” Swope’s body was exhumed and an autopsy performed. Three trials, seven years and a quarter of a million dollars later, Hyde was freed, his suspected guilt never proven.

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. There he lies beneath a Greek temple of white granite, guarded by a pair of stone lions.