40 Facts About Tom Hyer

Tom Hyer became a heavyweight boxing champion after defeating Country McCloskey in a long brutal fight in New York on September 9,1841, though there was no sanctioning body to recognize his championship.

Tom Hyer's victory increased American participation in boxing, and made him a celebrity; generating fight coverage and publicity in hundreds of American newspapers.

Thomas Tom Hyer was born in New York City, New York, on 1 Jan 1819.

Documentation proving the date of his birth, his father's birth, and that of his ancestors is found in 'Hyer and Allied Families' by Claudia E Thomas, published 2022 Tom died 26 June 1864 in New York City, New York.

Tom Hyer worked as a butcher at the old Washington Market in New York before entering boxing; staying with butchering as a sideline.

Tom Hyer was of Dutch ancestry, a heritage common among New York's earliest settlers.

Tom Hyer's father broke his arm in the fight, and never boxed again.

Tom Hyer's favorite blow was a crushing left to the collarbone.

Tom Hyer was not known as a scientific boxer with exceptionally finessed defensive skills, but was more of a brawler who had to trade blows in order to deliver a blow of his own.

Tom Hyer used this strategy to win his fights against both Country McCloskey and Yankee Sullivan.

Tom Hyer was recognized as the bare-knuckle boxing Heavyweight Champion of America after a 101-round victory over George McCheester, known as Country McCloskey, at Caldwell's Landing in New York City, on September 9,1841.

Tom Hyer began with roughly an eight-pound weight advantage as well as an inch advantage in height.

The first 11 rounds seemed to favor McClosky, but the tide turned by the 28th when Tom Hyer unleashed a tremendous, left-hander on Country's nose, which caused serious bleeding.

The death of Tom McCoy following his loss to Chris Lilly in Westchester County on September 13,1842, led to a more vigorous enforcement of the laws against prizefighting, and ultimately delayed the matching of Hyer with Yankee Sullivan.

In 1842, Tom Hyer was challenged by the Heavyweight Champion of England Ben Caunt, but no fight was held.

Tom Hyer first met "Yankee Sullivan", an Irishman with the real name James Ambrose, at an Oyster Bar at the corner of New York's Broadway and Park Place early in 1849.

Tom Hyer was reported to have won the brief encounter, and then loaded a pistol to protect himself from Sullivan's soon- to-arrive supporters.

On February 7,1849, Tom Hyer finally defeated Sullivan in a scorching battle that commenced around 4:00 pm.

When this failed, Tom Hyer's superior reach and height allowed him to dominate Sullivan.

When Tom Hyer stood up, it was clear, Sullivan could not continue.

Tom Hyer's banner was the American Stars and Stripes, in some ways representing his alliance with the nationalist, somewhat anti-immigrant, Whig Party; which was allied with the Know-Nothing Party.

Much of the way back from Chesapeake Bay to New York, Tom Hyer was greeted and cheered by large crowds that lined the streets of cities and towns, for parades of victory.

Two days later, Tom Hyer was celebrated when he arrived in Philadelphia by a triumphal procession after his victory over Sullivan, and there were even exaggerated reports in the newspapers of his becoming a Whig candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

Once the celebrations ended, Tom Hyer was required to attend a hearing in Philadelphia before a judge who was waiting for a requisition from the Governor of Maryland to prosecute him for the fight.

Tom Hyer was briefly held at Moyamensing Prison while waiting for the requisition from Maryland, but it never arrived.

In mid-April, 1849, Hyer appeared in a sold-out performance at Griffin's Mansion House in Albany, New York with his trainer, George Thompson, to perform the play "Tom and Jerry".

In 1850, Tom Hyer challenged the "Tipton Slasher", William Perry, reigning Heavyweight Champion of England, but no fight was held.

In 1851, Tom Hyer retired from the ring and relinquished the Heavyweight Championship of America; whereupon Yankee Sullivan claimed the title.

On October 26,1854, one source reports that Tom Hyer lost to Pat McGowan in St Louis in a little-known first round disqualification.

In 1854 Tom Hyer was scheduled to fight Irishman John Morrissey, at one time the head of New York's mostly Irish Dead Rabbits gang, who were rivals of Tom Hyer's anti-immigrant gang, the Bowery Boys, but Morrissey did not show for the fight.

Tom Hyer was associated financially and politically with William Poole's Bowery Boys gang, native-born New Yorkers who generally supported the Know Nothing anti-immigrant political party, but opposed Catholics, the Irish, and the corrupt Irish political machine, Tammany Hall.

On mid-January, 1855, Tom Hyer was reported to have been struck and injured in the head twice by the butt of a heavy revolver in an incident at New York's Platt's Hall below Wallick's Theater, by the former boxer Lew Baker, a rival of the Bowery Boys gang.

Tom Hyer filed an assault charge against the three men two days later.

In January 1855, Tom Hyer was arrested and apprehended in New York on charges of running a gambling house on Park Place, in New York.

Tom Hyer met Lincoln in 1861 in New York City when Lincoln was traveling to Washington for his inauguration.

Tom Hyer contacted rheumatism during the winter of 1862 while sutlering at Hooker's camp, and returned to Washington disabled.

Tom Hyer was ill for four months prior to his death.

Tom Hyer died on June 26,1864, at his home in Brooklyn, with a reported cause of death as "cardiac dropsy" or edema as it is known.

Tom Hyer was survived by his mother and wife, the former Emma Beke of Maine and his one daughter, Charlotte, who later married Floyd Grant.

Tom Hyer was inducted into Ring Magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame in 1954.