Stagecoach Robbery

Please see update at bottom of this page. 14 Sept 2019


In November 1880 there was a stagecoach robbery near Cave City, Barren County, KY.  A man was arrested in Ohio County and charged with this crime.  He was taken to Glasgow, the county seat for Barren County, tried and convicted.  The newspaper reports said his name was T. J. Hunt and that he had worked at the McHenry Coal Mines for about five years, that he was married and had at least one child, and was a resident of Ohio County.  The foregoing information was taken from an article in the Hartford Herald dated 24 Nov 1880 and is attributed to the Glasgow Times. That article also said that Mr. Hunt had been previously been a teacher in Barren County ("this county").

The 1880 census for Ohio County does not show anyone living in Ohio County with the surname Hunt.

The next article, dated 1 Dec 1880, was from a Lexington newspaper that said "the Hunt brothers lived near the McHenry coal mines in Ohio County and robbed stage coaches.  One has been arrested and the other brother has fled the country."

In an article dated 19 May 1882 in the Bourbon News (Paris, KY) it says "Hunt was convicted but pardoned May 1, 1882 by Governor Blackburn and released after 18 months in jail after proving he resembled Jesse James who was the actual leader of the Mammoth Cave stagecoach robbery.  Among the effects of Jesse James when he was killed was a watch taken at the Mammoth Cave robbery.  

In an article in the Hartford Herald dated 19 April 1882 he is called James Hunt. In an article from the Filson Quarterly (October 1995) he is identified as Thomas J. Hunt. There is an article about this event in the Courier Journal dated 16 May 1937 and he is identified as “William Hunt of Ohio County.”

I could not find a Thomas J. Hunt, William, Bill Hunt, or any Hunt in the Ohio County census for 1880.  The 1880 census was taken between 1 June 1879 and 31 May 1880 – the robbery took place in Nov 1880.  I found a Thomas J. Hunt in the 1870 census in Muhlenberg County age 13 (with brother James E.) & he married in Muhlenberg County 7 Mar 1876 to Susan Day; he was born Oct 1856 and died Sep 1934 – but I have no way of knowing if the Thomas J. Hunt I found in Muhlenberg County is the person that was arrested so don't jump to any conclusions.

Further, I found a book about stage coaches that contained a few pages about this robbery and in the story, copied below, he is also identified as T. J. Hunt.

It looks like it is about 67 miles from Hartford to Cave City; in those days travel was usually by horse-back or stage coach and I don't think there was a stage coach that ran between Hartford and Cave city, so we can assume that if Mr. Hunt went to Cave City he went by horse.  At a trot horses usually go about 10 miles per hour, so it would have taken Mr. Hunt all day to go to Cave City and another long day to return; I doubt if a horse could have done that without some rest, plus a lot of water.  Anyway, it looks like the law and the newspapers were certain that Mr. Hunt was the guilty party (innocent till proven guilty?) and the jury also found him guilty - but all along he was telling the truth. And it cost him 18 months in jail!

UPDATE:

Thanks to a message from Laura Hunt Angel I have found out much more about the Mr. Hunt described above.  You can read her message below in the "Comments" section.

Based on her comments I found Mr. Thomas Crutchfield Hunt in Ancestry.com and found the following memorandum posted by by a member of Ancestry.com:

"At 25 years old, Thomas C. Hunt was just the right age for soldiering when the Civil War came along. He joined up on the Rebel side on July 15, 1863, and started out in Company "I" as a corporal with Johnson's 10th Reg't. of the Kentucky Cavalry. That meant he was a horseman, an honored position in those days.

Thomas was a fourth cousin of the great civil war general, John Hunt Morgan, and he fought with him at a battle called the Indiana-Ohio Raid. Along with many others, he was captured during the battle and sent to Camp Douglas, near Chicago, for 18 months. It was renowned as a cold and cruel place, and between the years 1862-1865 it is estimated that at least 10,000 prisoners died there, but the true number is unknown. During and for a little while after the war, dead bodies from the camp would wash up along the shores of Lake Michigan near Chicago because prisoners who died were often thrown into the lake.

On the day Tom and the other soldiers were marched into the prison camp, Union guards noticed that there was a black soldier among them. One of the guards shot and killed the black soldier as he walked through the prison gate.

The cavalry soldiers who fought with John Hunt Morgan were known as Morgan's Raiders, and they were especially hated by the Union, and as prisoners were treated very harshly. For their part, however, Morgan's Raiders were  courageous and would not back down to the prison commanders. They often encouraged the other prisoners, and pulled pranks on the Union guards even though they would have to pay dearly for it. They even started their own prison newspaper, secretly passing the articles around. Soldiers who could not read would  gather quietly around a soldier who could to hear the articles.

When several of the Raiders escaped, the commander of the camp was replaced with a new commander named Col. Sweet. To impress his toughness on both the prisoners and his higher ups, he took away the prisoners' blankets and food rations. The prisoners had to catch rats and anything else they could find to eat; soon they were left with nothing but their shoe leather to boil for food.

Col. Sweet had a little dog that he was very fond of and brought to the camp with him. One day the dog disappeared, and the Col. had his guards search high and low, but the dog was never found. Soon a little poem appeared in the camp and was circulated among the prisoners. The poem read:

                  'For lack of bread the dog is dead; For lack of meat the dog is eat.'

This poem's author was never discovered, but maybe this is the origin of E. S. Hunt's poetic ability!

In truth, prisoners on either side of the conflict were treated cruelly and many did not survive their imprisonment. Even though Tom was the only Rebel in our Hunt family he was still very much loved. When his parents heard about the prisoners' harsh treatment, they began taking loans out to send supplies to Tom and the other prisoners at Camp Douglas. Other families on the Union side may have done the same thing, and it was a difficult time for everyone whatever side they were on. Kentucky was officially a Union state, but in reality it's residents were divided and sometimes neighbors or even family members found themselves on opposite sides during the war. 

Close to the end of the war Tom and some of the other surviving prisoners at Camp Douglas were taken by train to Point Lookout, MD, where Confederate POWs were exchanged for Union POWs. He was released with a Distinguished Service record and had to make his own way home to Kentucky.

One day shortly after the war, Tom was mysteriously arrested. He had bought a watch from someone, and that watch was part of the loot from one of Jesse Jame's robberies. The watch was traced to Tom and he was blamed for the robbery.

Jesse James had a relative - an aunt - who lived right in Mortons Gap, KY. The house still stands today. After one of his robberies Jesse hid out there for awhile and evidently found it necessary to sell some of his stolen goods. When Jesse was asked how he felt about Tom Hunt being jailed for a robbery he himself had committed, Jesse replied, "Let'em Rot!". Eventually the case was straightened out and Tom was freed.

Tom had property along McIntosh Chapel Rd. near his parents. His cabin stood not far from where a little bridge crosses over the creek that runs under part of the road. There was a spring nearby, and a big rock near the spring's mouth. Tom carved the big rock into a basin and used it to wash dishes and clean up. Both the spring and the rock basin are still there, but care must be take to find it because it is a favorite spot for thirsty snakes!

Tom married a widow lady named Barbara McKenzie. He never had children of his own, but did have one stepson from Barbara's first marriage, so he raised young Willie Gunn as his own son. In reality, all of his grandneices and nephews treated him as a grandfather.

Thomas Crutchfield Hunt died on Jun 10, 1928 at nearly 90 years old. His grandnephew, Eugene Spencer Hunt was 5 years old and sang his first song in public at the funeral. It was the hymn, "Where We'll Never Grow Old." Tom is buried in the old graveyard near where he lived, along with many of his grandfathers and grandmothers. His tombstone is one of the largest in the graveyard, and is the only one there that marks a Confederate soldier's burial site. Long after his death, a great niece, Ruth Agnes (Hunt) Pendley, called and had a confederate military marker placed there to honor him. 

Each year family members clean up the grounds of the old cemetery, including Uncle Tom's spot, which is adorned with flowers. Even though no one living now ever met him, he is still very much loved and honored by his "children"."