Kyle Hanging Tree - Kyle, TX
N 29° 57.760 W 097° 53.894
14R E 606306 N 3315159
A tree within what is now the Kyle Community Cemetery in Kyle, TX gained fame when cowboys of the Kyle ranch found a body hung from this tree. Reason for the hanging was and still is unknown.
Waymark Code: WMZFMP
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/04/2018
Views: 0
Claiborne Kyle owned a ranch in this area of Hays County where, sometime in the 1840s, ranch hands discovered a man had been hung from a Live oak tree on the Kyle Ranch. The cause of the hanging was unknown. It could have been a malicious act done by bandits, or mob justice, or less likely, a suicide. The man was buried near the tree, which makes him the first to be buried in this cemetery. In 1849 an orphan boy that the Kyles befriended was also buried near this tree. Others in unmarked graves are believed to also be buried near this tree.
Sometime after 1849, Col. Kyle donated 15 acres of his ranch where this Hanging Tree is to be used as a community cemetery. It appears this is the oldest continuously used community cemetery in Hays County. Among those buried here are signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, veterans of the Mexican War, and Capt. Ferguson Kyle after whom this town is named.
Adjacent to this community cemetery is another pioneer cemetery where Claiborne Kyle used to bury his family's slaves.
The street address of the Kyle Community Cemetery where this Kyle Hanging Tree is located is: 2607 S. Old Stagecoach Road, Kyle, TX.
References:
TX historical marker Kyle Cemetery: (
visit link)
"Famous Trees of Texas" of 1970
"Living Witness: Historic Trees of Texas" of 2012
"Famous Trees of Texas" of 2015