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John W. Swilling (April 1, 1830 – August 12, 1878) was an early pioneer in the
Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...
. He is commonly credited as one of the original founders of the city of
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
. Swilling also played an important role in the opening of the central Arizona highlands to white settlement. His discoveries resulted in a
gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...
to the region, and this in turn led to the establishment of Arizona's first territorial capital at the mining town of Prescott. Swilling was both a
Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...
minuteman and a civilian aid to the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. He worked in a variety of disciplines throughout his life, including as a
teamster A teamster in American English is a truck driver; a person who drives teams of draft animals; or a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union. In some places, a teamster was called a carter, the name referring to the ...
, prospector, mine and mill owner, and saloon and dance hall owner, as well as a canal builder, farmer, rancher, and public servant. All of this was accomplished while he suffered from periods of excruciating pain resulting from major injuries he suffered in 1854. He took
morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
to assuage the pain, which led to dependency problems for the rest of his life.


Life and career


Early life

John William "Jack" Swilling was born on April 1, 1830, at Red House Plantation,
Anderson, South Carolina Anderson is a city in and the county seat of Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 28,106 at the 2020 census, making it the 16th-most populous city in South Carolina. It is one of the principal cities in the Gree ...
, to George Swilling and Margaret Farrar Swilling, the eighth of their 10 children. George Swilling was the son of the plantation manager, while Margaret Farrar's father, Thomas Farrar, was the owner. (Incidentally, Thomas Farrar's mother was Judith Jefferson, the sister of Peter Jefferson and aunt to the third president, Thomas Jefferson.) Farrar's parents did not approve of the marriage, so the young couple eloped. It took three years for her parents to accept the match. In time, George Swilling became owner of the plantation. When Jack Swilling was 14, the family moved from
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
to
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
. Three years later he and an older brother enlisted in a mounted battalion of Georgia volunteers for service during the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
. After the war, the two young men returned to Georgia. Jack Swilling's whereabouts are unknown for a brief time afterwards, although he was reported in Georgia for the Christmas of 1849. The next recorded events in his life are his marriage at Wetumpka, Alabama in 1852 to Mary Jane Gray and the birth of their daughter Elizabeth a year later. Swilling wrote in 1854 that he suffered serious injuries—a broken skull and a bullet lodged in his back—in unstated circumstances. Those injuries plagued him for the rest of his life and led to a dependency on drugs and alcohol. In 1856, on his 26th birthday, something happened to cause him to leave permanently for the West. There is more than a year's break in the historical record, but Swilling apparently joined the Leach Wagon Road Company at
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as a
teamster A teamster in American English is a truck driver; a person who drives teams of draft animals; or a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union. In some places, a teamster was called a carter, the name referring to the ...
in the summer of 1857, probably staying with the slow-moving
oxen An ox (: oxen), also known as a bullock (in BrE, British, AusE, Australian, and IndE, Indian English), is a large bovine, trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castration, castrated adult male cattle, because castration i ...
-drawn wagon train until its arrival a year later at Mesilla, in Traditional Arizona, which was then part of the New Mexico Territory. The years between Swilling's arrival in Arizona in 1858 and the founding of Phoenix almost a decade later were active and varied ones. After his arrival in Arizona, Swilling moved to southern California, where he joined in a gold rush near
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. A few months later he was drawn back to Arizona by the gold rush at Gila City, where he also worked for the
Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...
Company.


Apache Wars and the American Civil War

He was elected captain of the Gila Rangers
militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...
company that was formed to provide protection from
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
stock raids on the miners and the stage company. The Gila Rangers, with the support of
warrior A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal society, tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy, social class, class, or caste. History ...
s from the friendly Maricopa tribe, made a January 1860 expedition to the unexplored Bradshaw Mountains of central Arizona in pursuit of Apache raiders. The expedition resulted in some noteworthy discoveries: the existence of the Hassayampa River and traces of mineral riches, including gold, in an area that appeared well-suited for ranching and farming. However, the area was too remote and dangerous for settlers at the time. Soon afterwards, the Gila City gold deposits ran out and Swilling followed his friend
Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
Jacob Snively to Pinos Altos, where he both mined and ran a saloon and dance hall. When the Union Army withdrew from the New Mexico Territory at the beginning of the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, the men of Pinos Altos formed a militia company they named the Arizona Guards for defense against Apache attack. The secession of
Confederate Arizona The Arizona Territory, Colloquialism, colloquially referred to as Confederate Arizona, was an Constitution of the Confederate States, organized incorporated territory of the Confederate States of America that existed from August 1, 1861, to ...
from the Union was officially declared in 1861, a territory which included all of the New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel. Swilling was elected second-in-command of the company, or First Lieutenant, and retained that rank when the Arizona Guards were absorbed into the
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...
. Swilling likely fought at the Battle of Pinos Altos, a Confederate victory and a battle which killed his commander,
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
Thomas J. Mastin. After a time spent defending against Apaches and acting as the '' de facto'' police force for the area around Pinos Altos, Swilling led a portion of the Arizona Guards that reinforced the
garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...
of
Tucson Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...
in 1862. He is believed to have commanded a party of rebels who burned Stanwix Station and skirmished with the Union Army's California Column there in March. He was also involved in the noted incident at White's Mill at Casa Blanca, Arizona when Union Captain James McCleave was captured. Following the Union's capture of Tucson in May 1862, Swilling's company retreated and he became a civilian employee of the United States Army, first as a dispatch rider between General James Henry Carleton's California Column and Union forces up the
Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...
, and later as a scout in an anti-Apache campaign. He was involved in the campaign to take Mesilla which ended with a Union takeover of Confederate Arizona's capital. Near the end of that employment, he encountered the Joseph R. Walker exploratory party near Pinos Altos when Swilling led the capture of the famous Apache chief Mangas Coloradas.


Further prospecting and marriage

Swilling's war ended there and he convinced Joseph Walker and his group that there was gold in the central highlands of the new Arizona Territory. He then guided them to where the first Yavapai County mining district was formed, just a few miles south of present-day Prescott, on May 10, 1863. The expedition called it the Pioneer Mining District, and the rules they adopted were the area's first recorded laws. Swilling left the Walker party shortly after the formation of the Pioneer Mining District and joined up with the exploratory party of Pauline Weaver and Abraham Harlow Peeples (1842–1892), which arrived in the area shortly after the Walker group. He made a small fortune from the unusual surface gold mine at Rich Hill between Wickenburg and Prescott. News of his successes spread eastward when two gold samples from Swilling's claim sent to General James Henry Carleton were forwarded for presentation to President
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
. Next, Swilling was briefly part owner of a flour mill in Tucson, apparently in partnership with his neighbor Charles T. Hayden. Quickly tiring of Tucson, he returned to Yavapai County where he prospected, owned gold mines and gold milling operations, and farmed. In addition he also was the mail contractor between Prescott and the Pima villages below the
Salt River Valley The Salt River Valley is an extensive valley on the Salt River (Arizona), Salt River in central Arizona, which contains the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Although this geographic term still identifies the area, the name "Valley of the Sun" popularl ...
on the Gila River. In the midst of all this activity, Jack Swilling married a young Mexican woman of Spanish heritage named Trinidad Mejia Escalante (1847–1925). They were married on April 11, 1864, at Tucson's San Agustin Cathedral when Trinidad was about seventeen. Over the next fourteen years they had seven biological children, five girls and two boys, and adopted two Apache
orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...
s, a boy and a girl.


Swilling Irrigation and Canal Company

Jack Swilling had the inspiration to form a canal company which would open the
Salt River Valley The Salt River Valley is an extensive valley on the Salt River (Arizona), Salt River in central Arizona, which contains the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. Although this geographic term still identifies the area, the name "Valley of the Sun" popularl ...
to farming. On November 16, 1867, he formed the Swilling Irrigating and Canal Company at Wickenburg. Soon after, a small group of men headed by Swilling started construction of the first modern-era irrigation canals in the Salt River Valley; other pioneers and travelers had seen and commented on ancient Hohokam
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...
s in the area, but it was Swilling who organized the first successful modern irrigation project. The following summer, the first crops of wheat, barley and corn were harvested. He promoted the irrigation system, which was in part inspired by the ruins of the Hohokam canals. Swilling Irrigating and Canal Company started the small farming community of Phoenix that has since grown into one of the United States' largest metropolitan areas. Swilling claimed a quarter section south of what became Van Buren Street between 32nd and 36th Streets for his own farm. He built a nine-room, home there. His farm was a local showplace, featuring an artificial pond with tame
duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...
s, a
vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
and an orchard with a variety of fruit trees. In the early days, Jack Swilling was one of the most prominent leaders of the Phoenix settlement. The first post office was established on June 15, 1868, in Swilling's homestead, with Swilling serving as the postmaster. He was also the first justice of the peace. He was involved in the planning and construction of additional canals, including the first ditch south of the Salt River in partnership with an old acquaintance and business partner, Charles T. Hayden, the founder of
Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...
and father of long-time Arizona Senator Carl T. Hayden.


Death

Once Phoenix was well-established and the so-called "original townsite" was located over three miles (5 km) to the west of his holdings, he lost interest and moved his growing family back to central Arizona. There he mined, farmed and ranched until he became a suspect in a stagecoach robbery near Wickenburg. By the spring of 1878, he and his family were living in the small mining community of Gillett, around the area of Black Canyon City. His health was failing, and his drinking had become a problem. Trinidad Swilling suggested that he go on a trip to recover and rebury the remains of their old friend, Colonel Jacob Snively, who had been killed by Apaches in the Wickenburg Mountains near the peak called White Picacho. While Swilling and two companions were on this journey, three hooded men—one tall, one medium-size, and one short—robbed a stagecoach near Wickenburg. This description matched that of Swilling and his companions and they became suspects in the robbery. Pima County Sheriff Wiley W. Standefer arrested Swilling and Andrew Kirby, but dropped the state charges so the federal courts could prosecute them and absorb the prosecution costs. Deputy U.S. Marshal Joseph W. Evans brought warrants for the two men to Prescott, where they were turned over to him, and Evans escorted them to the federal jail in Yuma. The sanitary conditions inside the prison at Yuma were very poor and, combined with the August heat plus the fact of his usage of a combination of
narcotic The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
s and
liquor Liquor ( , sometimes hard liquor), spirits, distilled spirits, or spiritous liquor are alcoholic drinks produced by the distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar that have already gone through ethanol fermentation, alcoholic ferm ...
to relieve the pain caused by old injuries ruined Jack Swilling's health further and eventually led to his death. He was released to the Hodges family, friends of the Swillings, and died in their home. The real culprits of the massacre were caught proving his innocence too late. The real robbers—led by a man Swilling and others had publicly accused—were identified only after Swilling's death.


Yuma Pioneer Cemetery

According to the written documents provided by Swillings' wife, Trinidad Swilling, her husband was released to their friends, the Hodges family, who resided in Yuma. She also stated that Swilling died in the Hodges family house. The Hodges family owned two lots in the Yuma Pioneer Cemetery behind the old Catholic Church, and Swilling was buried in one of lots before his family could be notified. A headstone for his grave was once long missing, but has been replaced. After his death, Swilling's reputation as a badman grew so fast that by the end of the 19th century a prominent Arizona historian described him as a "typical desperado." By many accounts he was a joker and yarn spinner and while drinking he spread tall tales about his exploits to all who would listen. Friends remembered Jack Swilling as an honest, hard-working, and generous man always ready to help those in need of a meal or a place to sleep. He was known to put his own life at risk for others, literally riding to the rescue when help was needed in the face of an Apache attack. On Thursday afternoon, February 19, 1931, the Maricopa Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, in a simple ceremony with the presence of Arizona Governor George W. P. Hunt, unveiled and dedicated to the memory of Jack and Trinidad Swilling, a fountain which stands in the park directly in front of the courthouse building in Phoenix. The fountain has a small bronze plaque with the following inscription: "In memory of Lieut. Jack W. Swilling, 1831–1878, who built the first modern irrigation ditch, and Trinidad, his wife, 1850–1925, who established in 1868 the first pioneer home in the Salt River Valley."


See also

*
Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...
* List of historic properties in Black Canyon City, Arizona


References

Notes Further reading * Bates, Albert R. (2008) ''Jack Swilling: Arizona's Most Lied About Pioneer'' (Wheatmark Publishing Co., Tucson, AZ) * * Wilson, R. Michael (2007) ''Tragic Jack: The True Story of Arizona Pioneer John William Swilling'' (TwoDot)


External links


Jack Swilling Exhibit, 1992
with historic documents and photos, at Salt River Project
Swilling's cabin
in Black Canyon City {{DEFAULTSORT:Swilling, Jack 1830 births 1878 deaths Confederate States Army officers Arizona folklore American city founders People from Anderson, South Carolina American military personnel of the Mexican–American War Military personnel from Phoenix, Arizona Businesspeople from Phoenix, Arizona People of Arizona in the American Civil War People from Arizona Territory 19th-century American businesspeople