Thomas Hayden “Tom” Hunt (1887-1951)

Names Detail

First Name

Thomas

Middle Name

Hayden

Nick Name/Preferred Name

Tom

Last Name

Hunt

Birth and Death

Birth Date

August 24, 1887

Death Date

April 3, 1951

Age at Death

63 year(s), 7 month(s), 10 day(s)

Cemetery Location and Disposition

Cemetery Location

Row 09, Grave 04 | Map

Disposition Type

Burial

Relationships to Others at the Cemetery

External Links

Find A Grave

Notes

Tom was born in Liberty Hill, Texas, to William H. Hunt (1862–1890) and Matilda Jane “Mattie” Duncan (1862–1925). The family moved to Moline when he was three years old. In both the 1900 and 1910 censuses, he is listed as living in the Moline area. Sometime between 1910 and 1917, Tom apparently married an unidentified woman who had two children. His WWI draft registration, dated June 5, 1917, lists him as being married and living in Moline. The registration lists the following dependents: wife, mother, and two stepchildren. According to the 1920 census, at age thirty-two and married, he was living in Lometa with his mother, Matilda, who was listed as the head of the household. His wife at the time was not a member of the household. They lived next to the R.E. Duncan household, which included M.F. Duncan (wife) and their children, Ell, Gracie, Grady, and Orbie. On April 16, 1924, he married Ruby Pearl Newton. Ruby moved to the Payne Gap area from Oklahoma, having been hired by the Hunt family to take care of an ailing Mattie Hunt. Tom’s death certificate reports that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot to the head from a .22 rifle. He also suffered from TB and depression.

From a local newspaper published on March 16, 1912:

MURDER AT LOMETA

A Finas Hunt Killed and His Brother Arrested Charged with the Crime

Finas Hunt, formerly of Payne Gap, was killed at Lometa shortly after 9 o’clock Tuesday night and his brother, Tom, has been arrested and jailed at Lampasas charged with the crime. The particulars, as far as can be ascertained, are that the two Hunt boys accompanied two friends, Messrs. Alexander and Hall of Georgetown, to the train, and after seeing them aboard left the depot, but whether or not they left together is not known. A few steps from the depot Finas Hunt was shot in the side by someone and started to run, calling for help. A second and third shot struck him in the back and he fell forward. His assailant then struck him on the head several times with a revolver or some heavy instrument, and his skull was crushed.

Persons attracted to the place of the murder, by the man’s call for help, found him dead and they at once gave the alarm. Officers were notified and the search for the murderer was commenced. The men who had been accompanied to the train by the Hunt brothers were detained at Temple until Sheriff Mace of Lampasas could interview them and ascertain if they knew anything about the case, but they new nothing about it and were allowed to proceed on their journey. After the burial of Finas at Lometa Tuesday afternoon, his brother Tom was arrested charged with the crime, and is now in the Lampasas jail. It is likely an examining trial will be held today, unless Hunt waives examination.

The Hunt brothers were reared in the Payne community, where their mother still lives. Finas had made his home in Lometa for about a year, and recently bought a meat market there. He was about 25 years old and his brother is two or three [two] years younger. They are the only children of their parents.

Bio from The Four F’s of Moline [corrected]:

Tom Hunt moved into this vicinity in the early 1900s from Williamson Co County, on the San Gabriel River. He was a farmer and rancher. The Hunts attended the Baptist Church in Moline. He served on the Payne Gap School board for many years before the school closed in 1941.